Looking like a small piece of a future city deposited smack in the middle of Texas, the Fort Worth Water Gardens have long been an ultra-modern oasis in the desert city.
The public fountain complex, built in 1974 and located in downtown Fort Worth, are an explosion of ubiquitous flows of water. Containing 4.3 acres of pools, nozzles, and sprays, the urban park has been described as "a cooling oasis in the concrete jungle." Designed by New York architects Philip Johnson and John Burgee, the park features three focal pools, shielded from adjacent Interstate 30 by a terraced knoll.
Trees encircle a quiet meditation pool, its placid plane of water cascading 90 degrees to a sunken walkway. An aerating pool has multiple spray fountains, and the main pool is a series of stone steps leading down to a smaller pool at the bottom, water cascading around from 38 feet above. Originally 9 feet deep, the main pool at the bottom of the terraced steps was briefly closed in 2004 after four people drowned in it. After one child fell into the pool, another child, and an adult all ultimately died attempting to save the original child. The park reopened three years later, the main pool having been reduced to two feet.
The location was immortalized by both the 1975 film Logan's Run and also the 1979 TV adaptation of The Lathe of Heaven. However Fort Worth residents have knew of the Water Gardens long before any fantastic futurists.
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