The symbolic figures are designed to
interpret the spirit of the oceans they represent - the Atlantic, fine
and bright, upon her armored sword-fish; the Pacific, a beautiful,
graceful, happily brooding Oriental; the North Sea, finned and
glistening, strange and eerie; the South Sea, savage and tempestuous,
blowing a fitful blast. The lesser waters have a lighter quality. The
hair of the sea-spirits suggests seaweed and coral. From the mouths of
of the sea-chargers jets of water rise to meet the nimbus and rainbows
of the semi-spherical downpour of the main fountain.
Mermaid Fountain
Festival Hall, South Gardens
Long, quiet mirror pools flank the great Fountain of Energy, giving
balance and calm to the entrance plaza, or South Gardens. They are
oblong in shape with the farther ends curving into a graceful convex.
The pools are surrounded by formal flowerbeds planted to correspond to
the beds surrounding the central fountain, thus giving continuity to the
whole. These beds are enclosed by a decorative fence which follows the
outline of the pools; the entering paths, emphasized at the outer ends
by flower urns, at the inner by sculptural light standards.
The curved ends of the pools are marked by Arthur Putnam's beautiful
Mermaid Fountain, in duplicate. The crowning figure is by no means the
conventional mermaid.
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