Note: This is a virtual cache. There is no physical container to find.
Welcome to Crown Fountain, an interactive work of public art and video sculpture featured in Chicago's Millennium Park.
Requirement to log this virtual:
Take a picture of yourself (face not required) with either 50-foot glass tower and post it with your log.
Enjoy your visit!
Crown Fountain History
Designed by artist Jaume Plensa and inspired by the people of Chicago, Crown Fountain is a major addition to the city's world-renowned public art collection. Crown Fountain uses numerous design elements including water, light, and glass to create a unique meeting point and reflection space.
Two identical 50-foot glass block towers at each end of a shallow reflecting pool project video images from a broad cross-section of 1,000 Chicago citizens having water flow through an outlet in the screen to give the illusion of water spouting from their mouths. This is a reference to the traditional use of gargoyles in fountains, where faces of mythological beings were sculptured with open mouths to allow water, a symbol of life, to flow out. Though not originally constructed as such, the fountain has become an interactive summer urban oasis for families and visitors who take refuge in the space during Chicago’s humid summers.
Krueck + Sexton Architects constructed the towers using 22,000 ten-pound blocks. The surface area of the fountain floor is covered with matte, black granite creating a vast, dark and empty surface. Covering the ground surface is a “water skin,” a shallow reflecting pool measuring 1/8th of an inch deep and is spread out across the whole of the pool measuring 232-feet long by 48-feet wide. The pool invites visitors to step on its surface and look at the images of the sky and city reflected within.
The fountain’s water features operate during the year between mid-spring and mid-fall, while the images remain on view year-round.
Virtual Reward - 2017/2018
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between August 24, 2017 and August 24, 2018. Worldwide, 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards on the Geocaching Blog.