Header

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Water Architecture with Dan Euser


Dan Euser, water architect of the National 9/11 Memorial in New York City and owner of DEW Inc., visited Colorado State University this week for the Fall Into Landscape Architecture series.

Dan provided insight into the design of the dual-waterfall feature at Ground Zero. The audience was guided through his process of reviewing precedents of man-made waterfalls in order to build a massive, thirty-foot-high prototype in his backyard that would evolve through trial-and-error and withstand inclement weather, as well as all four Canadian seasons. Dan went on to discuss sustainability measures taken and the obstacles faced during the process as a whole, concerning political hurdles, sound amplitude, uniform aesthetic, mold growth, water usage, and electricity costs. Eventually, the waterfalls' consumption rate was drastically reduced from cycling two-hundred gallons of water per square foot and racking up eight-million dollars worth of electricity costs per year, to a mere sixty gallons using a third of a million dollars annually. 

Sensitivity to sustainably-designed water features was extended to cover Dan's more recent and ongoing projects, including the Mississauga Celebration Square water plaza (ON, Canada), the misting water feature of Exhale (Chapel Hill, NC), and the fountains of the Belo Garden Project (Dallas, TX).

The students and staff of CSU thank Dan for his time and graciousness.