3CDC Encourages Kids to Play on Steps
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
Not until recently did I find this link describing the Fountain Square water wall for children. I had just heard about it as a new feature for the redesigned Square, and I had been looking forward to it. (I keep trying to find reasons to like something about the new Square, and I keep wanting to enjoy that public space with my son.) This past weekend, I found the new interactive water wall was operational—but unfortunately it is another dud brought to us by 3CDC.
I imagined an interactive water element for kids to be located in a self-contained corner of the Square, or someplace where I could easily keep an eye on a group of children having fun. I even thought its location would be such that you could bring a small group of friends down to have the kids play while the adults sat at a table chatting.
Such thoughts are mere fantasy, and the placement of the water wall is awkward, at best.
Almost half of the water wall is located against a flight of steps. I just don’t think it’s generally a good idea to encourage small children to play on steps. While the Fountain Square steps may not be long and steep, they are steps nonetheless—so it’s strange that the designers for 3CDC would want to encourage a weird safety hazard like that.
The water wall also features some jets that shoot up little splashes periodically, located on a small landing between two flights of steps. (See diagram.) When I was there, these jets would activate a cycle every five minutes or so—which meant the kids had a long wait before something fun would start to happen.
Because of how everything is placed, a parent can’t look away from the children for even a few seconds. A momentary distraction by something on the jumbotron could be the only window a kid needs to run down the steps toward the 5/3 building and around the corner, out of sight.
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