Water crosses all cultures. It has the ability to connect and relate people together. As the elemental necessity for life we can use it to reflect and situate ourselves.

By using drinking fountains along Peachtree Street to redefine civic space, a peripatetic language of water connects and unifies various neighborhoods and districts historically divided while raising awareness of Atlanta’s reliance on imported water.

Atlanta’s recent acknowledgement of a water crisis transcends engineering and political solutions; it is a cultural and civic opportunity to transform our city. The springs in and around downtown Atlanta were the source of water for refueling steam engines in the early nineteenth century. One particular spring is located beneath the intersection of five-points in between Woodruff Park and Underground Atlanta. In the late nineteenth century an artesian well was located there and supplied water through wooden pipes to the city of Atlanta. By capturing this water that is currently being directed into storm drains, processing it, and redirecting it along Peachtree Street we can provide a dedicated line for public drinking fountains.

The narrow sidewalk is currently the dominant pedestrian territory along Peachtree Street. By pulling property lines away from the sidewalk – pedestrian jetties provide refuge and drinking water. The new space is defined through cutting earth and inserting the drinking fountain wall.

“One cannot step twice into the same river, nor can one grasp any mortal substance in a stable condition, but it scatters and again gathers; it forms and dissolves, and approaches and departs.” – Haraclitus