These designs are for the entrances to the new Africa exhibit at the Albuquerque Biological Park. The entrances are visually quite different, so there is a different approach for each one although they are both fountains and use brightly colored glass cutouts.

Entrance No. 1

This site has dense vegetation and is the primary entrance to the exhibit so it really needs to say "Africa." The design is for a fountain made of a stone slab with the shape of the African continent cut out revealing the bushes and trees behind. Water pours over the stone and form drops and streams across the cutout. Mounted on the front and back are brightly colored fused glass images of animals. The stone sits in a concrete basin and drains into a narrow 3/8" deep "stream bed" that crosses the pedestrian path marking the boundary of the exhibit at "kid level" promoting interaction. The stream empties into a pool on the opposite side of the path where it is pumped back to the fountain.The streambed is made of flat pieces of stone that have been grooved to carry the water, while allowing wheelchairs, strollers, rollerblades, and so on to easily roll across. There is also a dry section where the water is channeled under ground for people to walk across if they don"t want to touch the stream.

Medium: Lunas Azul limestone (blue gray color)
Dimensions: 8.5" x 4" x 4"

Entrance No. 2

The second entrance is between tall fences made of poles. The entrance piece here is composed of three marble columns of different heights that echo the poles. Each column is a fountain and each represents a different part of sub-Saharan Africa: East Africa, West Africa, and Southern Africa. Mounted on the sides of each column are brightly colored fused glass images of animals, masks, and tribal cloth patterns from the part of Africa represented by that column. Signage nearby explains the significance of each column and identifies the images by country and tribe.

Medium: Colorado Yule marble (white with gray streaks)
Dimensions: #1 - 8.5" x 12" x 12"; #2 - 7.5" x 12" x 12", #3 - 6.5" x 12" x 12"