The Mellon Fountain was dedicated in 1952 in recognition of former Secretary of the Treasury, Andrew W. Mellon.  The fountain is composed of four broad basins stacked in a tiered fashion ranging from 55 feet across at the bottom to 5 feet at the top. The series of bronze basins allows the water to cascade onto an exposed-aggregate concrete floor ringed by a curb of Pink Swenson Granite. The surrounding plaza is and memorial bench are constructed of matching stone, and the entire assembly sits on a cast-in-place structural concrete support.

The plaza and the fountain had fallen into disrepair by the late 1990’s, and then shut off in 2008 due to a lack of maintenance funds. After a transfer of ownership, the site was scheduled for a complete restoration.

The fountain and plaza were recorded with laser scans to establish the locations and levels of the basins.  The entire site was disassembled down to the concrete substrate, and the components catalogued before being transported off site for storage.  The exposed concrete structure was repaired, covered with a new waterproofing layer and topping slab.  The granite pavers of the plaza were reset on a new setting bed, pitched to shed water away from the center.  Once the stone basin and fountain supports were reinstalled, the cast bronze pieces were returned and carefully reconnected in place.  The finish was restored without removing the historic patina. Using the information gathered from the scans, the design team developed solutions to resolve issues inherent to the original constructions and WEI developed a reassembly plan that accommodated the tight horizontal tolerances required to recreate the fountain’s unique water sheeting effect.

The final piece of installation was recreating the floor of the bottom basin, meant to look like a river bed.  WEI developed a method to install the concrete in small batches and install the surface stones by hand, with the proper reveal and a minimum of cold pour seams.

The WEI conservation team has been contracted since the restoration to perform seasonal maintenance for the bronze components.