These are some children having fun in Rings Fountain, part of the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway, which, as part of the Big Dig project, replaced a truly hideous elevated freeway that sliced through the heart of Boston.

This is part of the Greenway know as the Great Room, which has at its core a "lighted, choreographed fountain shooting 30 to 40 feet in the air designed by Wet Design. The 64 nozzles are set in three circles of rose-colored stone inlaid at surface level. Since each nozzle works independently, there are innumerable design configurations possible with the jets of spray. The fountain is air powered vs. water-pressure powered, so the result is a light spray." More info available here in this PDF.

Taken as part of the one-year anniversary photowalk of the Boston, Massachusetts, Flickr group. (Thanks to Greg for organizing this!)

I really love the details brought out by the light reflected in the water. Kind of a cool effect, I think.

This is a shot of an ice sculpture done by master ice carver Steve Rose for the First Night celebration in Boston and on public display on the Boston Common on New Year’s Eve 2009. Rose recreated one of the Museum of Fine Arts‘ famous 4,000-year old Egyptian sculptures, the original of which is currently on view at the MFA in the exhibition, “The Secrets of Tomb 10A: Egypt 2000 BC.”

A shot of some fountain lights in the lobby of the Embassy Suites Hotel in downtown Chicago.

I liked the rough symmetry and reflective qualities of the both the water and the stone.

After yesterday’s self-portrait of me reflected in "Cloud Gate" in Chicago’s Millenium Park, I went into my archives and found this shot I did last year of the sculpture. This provides a much stronger sense of just what an awe-inspiring achievement this piece of public art really is. (And from this angle, as some people have commented, it does indeed look like a giant, reflective Easter egg.)

That face in the bottom right of the photo is part of two glass towers that show huge moving faces on either end of Crown Fountain.

As I said before, "The Bean" (as Cloud Gate is popularly known) is one of my favorite places.

Copyright © 2009. All rights reserved.

Striding Confidently to Nowhere

Originally uploaded by briburt

I took this photo of Jonathan Borofsky’s Walking Man just outside the West Wing entrance to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

Borofsky has an installation in the Upper Galleria of the West Wing that includes a number of these figures, either falling or flying (it’s hard to tell which). It’s very eerie to see them suspended there above you as you wander around that part of the museum.

A shot of the “Cloud Gate” sculpture in Chicago.

That’s the Aon Center (Chicago’s second tallest building after the Sears Tower) reflected on the surface.