Fort Worthology goes to Portland, Part Three: Ira Keller Fountain

It’s time for our next Portland post. Today, we’re going to shift gears just a bit, and take a trip away from the larger-scale posts to examine something very specific – the Ira Keller Fountain. We’ll have another post next week with more about Portland’s parks and plazas in general, along with more posts about the other topics we’ll be talking about.

The Ira Keller Fountain was one of the must-sees for us on this trip, because of its designer: Lawrence Halprin.

First, a bit of background. Lawrence Halprin is a landscape architect who designed several urban parks & plazas during the 1970s. Now, our disdain for most everything architecture from the ’70s is pretty well known to regular readers, but Halprin’s work is often an exception. Trouble is, it’s not so easy to see a lot of Halprin’s work, because it’s getting plowed down as it ages.

Here in Fort Worth, we are fortunate enough to have our own Halprin work – Heritage Park, on the north end of Downtown Fort Worth on the bluff looking out over the Trinity River. Heritage Park is one of our favorite, and we think most underrated, public spaces – and it’s also one of our most terribly maintained.

Heritage Park is an intimate collection of water features, plazas, and scenic overlooks designed by Halprin not long after Philip Johnson’s larger, more elaborate, and far more well-known Water Gardens opened at the south end of Downtown. Like most Fort Worth water-related parks, though, Heritage Park fell into severe disrepair and was unceremoniously closed a couple of years ago, with no word from the city. Even prior to the closing, it had been neglected and forgotten about.

To their credit, the city has recently opened up about the park and is working with Laurie Olin, a former associate of Halprin, on respectfully restoring and reactivating the park. This comes after a report by Carter + Burgess that recommended smothering Heritage Park with safety railings and other elements that would ruin Halprin’s vision and the park’s feel.

In preparation for the restoration of our own Halprin park, one of a dwindling number still intact in the United States, it can be helpful to look at other cities that have kept their Halprin designs. Few are as lovely as Portland’s Ira Keller Fountain.

Situated in the southeastern part of Downtown Portland, the Ira Keller Fountain was completed in 1970. It’s comprised of an elaborate water feature, running over and between blocks before culminating in a waterfall over concrete blocks and slabs. The waterfall feeds a pool, over which a series of concrete pads appears to “float” above the water, taking visitors close to the falls.

So much of ’70s architecture ages very, very badly, but Ira Keller seems to have aged quite gracefully. It’s a wonderfully inviting place, as the roar of the water seems to drown out your nervousness about playing on the various pads and steps. As architectural writer Walt Lockley writes:

Like the Apollo program, the Ira Keller fountain in downtown Portland Oregon is an accomplishment from the 70’s that we as a society could now barely manage. It’s a loud and playfully interactive physical expression of civic values that today seem too liberal and humane to be true, and, in that wonderful sneaky ability of environments to set our social expectations, it perpetuates those values. Protecting this fountain has a practical social benefit…

…As you advance towards the water in the collecting pools, you might wonder if you can trust you own sense of privilege, if you’re really allowed to do this. Trail your fingers in the fast flow up top, perch wet or dry atop the falls, wade barefoot into the bottom, or climb. You’re operating in that wonderful audio cocoon-bubble of privacy created by the loud rushing water, behind or maybe inside that wall of sound, so you feel alone and brave. Eventually you give yourself permission. Or you don’t. You decide how brave you want to get, or not. It’s a detail, but many have commented on that moment.

That’s right – incredibly, the Ira Keller Fountain has not been mangled by safety nannies and ADA regulations, even following its restoration. There are no safety railings at all. No walls around the edges. No barriers preventing you from interacting directly with the water and the architecture. Only a few standard signs, seen around all Portland water features, are present:

Please use caution while enjoying this fountain. Like all streams and waterfalls, slippery surfaces, rapidly moving water, pools of water and high drop-offs require careful attention.

That’s it. There’s nothing stopping you from dipping a toe in, running your hands along the falls, wading around the pads. It is the kind of public space we simply don’t do anymore. The restoration and ongoing use of Ira Keller Fountain is in direct opposition to the blandified, watered-down world of railings that Carter + Burgess recommended for Heritage Park, which is even less arguably dangerous than the Keller Fountain. Keller has kept its interactivity and its soul, and that little bit of mostly-imagined danger that, as Lockley says, lets you “decide how brave you want to get, or not.”

As Lockley further writes:

It’s that the verbal message of those signs is so effectively contradicted and drowned out by the bravery, openness, good sense and loud sexiness of the water, that’s the best part. There are no railings or fences. The place is untamed and attractively dangerous, like the natural world.

Of the Keller Fountain, civic planner Barbara Duncan writes (quoted on Lockley’s page):

Coming from another urban area (Oakland-Berkeley) a number of years ago my first reaction to Ira’s Fountain was slack-jawed disbelief. The thing most striking to me was its absence. Where were the signs saying ‘keep out,’ ‘danger’, ‘caution’, ‘no swimming’? There were no warnings or precautions visible. Did the lawyers know about this? How do they pay the liability? I was charmed, impressed and fell totally in love with the city of Portland at that point. Charmed that they cared enough to give over this energy and space to a non-revenue generator… To this day, many years since, I would name either the Salmon Street Springs or Ira’s Fountain as my favorite spots in the entire city. It is the joy factor of watching people interacting with the water. The kids especially are surprised that it is O.K. to go in. They look around as they approach the fountain, half-expecting someone to yell, ‘Stop, don’t touch that!’

Fort Worth is in a rare group of American cities that still have interesting works by Mr. Halprin. Not only should Heritage Park be preserved, but it should be preserved in a kind and respectful way to Halprin’s original intent. It should not be railinged and barricaded to death. Restore it, maintain it, don’t let the plants overgrow it again, make it the way it was supposed to be.

Portland’s preservation of Ira Keller Fountain is a great leading example. I’d be first in line to knock down most ’70s architecture, but something about much of Halprin’s work is different. He created fascinating spaces, and there is nothing else in Fort Worth even remotely similar to Heritage Park – not even the Water Gardens, which is the closest equivalent in town, is even vaguely like Heritage Park.

Keep Heritage Park in its intended configuration. We could wind up with a beloved, unique, and intimate public space in the heart of the Trinity River Vision, rather than a watered-down half-hearted effort covered in safety frosting.

The city’s new collaboration with Laurie Olin is encouraging – we may yet see Heritage Park reborn as it was supposed to be. For now, here are some more photos of Ira Keller Fountain, in Portland, Oregon – a place that “got it” with respect to their own Halprin projects.

Let’s hope Fort Worth “gets it,” too.

More in our Portland series to come, including:

Parks & Plazas
Architecture
Residential Development
Local Businesses
The retail scene in urban Portland
The brewpub culture
The vegan/vegetarian culture
Food Carts (seriously)

And more.