Although this is perhaps our firm’s highest-profile project, our role in it is hidden in plain sight.

We were asked to resolve a series of complex technical challenges to fulfill the Crown family’s desire to offer a gift to the city of Chicago and bring to life Jaume Plensa’s concept for a 21st-century fountain. The task required mastering and coordinating its parts — including LED technology, glass, and water — impeccably and invisibly.

Since day one, the public has wholeheartedly embraced this open, welcoming, and inspiring space. Well into its second decade, it is, in Plensa’s words, “an explosion of freedom.”

It succeeds by allowing all who encounter it — residents and visitors, young and old — to have their own experience: be that to sit back and contemplate, or to jump in and play.