VANCOUVER, Wash. (KOIN) — Kids are playing and splashing in a brand new water feature that opened Friday at Vancouver Waterfront Park.
The $3.5-million Columbia River interactive art installation is designed to take visitors on a journey, starting with a 12-foot-tall stone and bronze structure called “Headwaters.”
The east side of the Headwaters features a cast bronze bas relief map of the Columbia Basin. Water cascades down an engraved stone with a topographical map of the Columbia’s origins on the structure’s west face.
A one-inch-deep “river” flows 150 feet along a molded riverbed dotted with stacks of granite representing each of the Columbia’s tributaries.
Officials said the water is chlorinated and safe for visitors to play in.
Larry Kirkland, the artist who designed the water feature, said installations like this “can celebrate the qualities that make each place unique and can create a sense of civic ownership. The pride of place is a building block for the future of these communities.”