How one iPad under Lincoln Center runs the Revson Fountain’s water shows
Engineers control more than 350 nozzles from an underground room, and the biggest effects run only on days without wind.
The Revson Fountain at Lincoln Center, in front of the Metropolitan Opera House, sends up its dancing water through more than 350 nozzles set in concentric rings. Every movement is controlled from one iPad in a room below ground.
The fountain has appeared on screen in “Moonstruck,” where Cher meets Nicolas Cage there before they see a show, and in “Ghostbusters,” where Bill Murray hops and spins around it while he waits for Sigourney Weaver.
How the Lincoln Center fountain is controlled
The underground room also holds the fountain’s loud water pumps. From the iPad, engineers can choose simple patterns or bigger programmed effects. One effect, called “shooters,” sends jets straight up in arcs as high as 60 feet. Patrick McLaughlin, Lincoln Center’s director of engineering and facilities operations, said wind plays a big part, and many of the most ambitious effects run only on windless days. Asked for his favorite, he answered right away: “Shooters. Shooters!” He said the team runs them on as many days as it can.
Regular water shows run on a schedule. On special occasions the water is timed to lighting and music cues. A three-tiered sequence designed to look like a wedding cake runs just once a year, on the day Lincoln Center invites hundreds of couples to marry at Alice Tully Hall.
Revson Fountain history
Finished in 1964, the fountain was paid for with a $300,000 gift to Lincoln Center from Revlon. That cosmetics company belonged to Charles Revson, and the fountain bears his name. In 2009, WET Design, a firm based in California, upgraded it.
WET Design also works on the Fountains of Bellagio, and the engineers said they are careful about how much they ask of the firm when they plan new programming. John Houlihan, who serves as chief engineer at the central mechanical plant, said the goal is a fountain that works and does a few cool things, not a Bellagio-style spectacle. “This isn’t Vegas, you know? It’s New York,” he said.
What it means for you
Lincoln Center says the fountain sits at the center of Josie Robertson Plaza, the gateway to Lincoln Center at Columbus Avenue and West 64th Street, and that the plaza is reached from Columbus Avenue by ramps. Lincoln Center
Quick answers
Who controls the Lincoln Center fountain?
Lincoln Center engineers run it from one iPad in an underground control room that also houses the water pumps.
When was the Revson Fountain built?
It was finished in 1964 and upgraded in 2009 by the California firm WET Design.
How high does the Revson Fountain shoot water?
The 'shooters' effect sends streams up to 60 feet high, mostly on days without wind.
