i couldn't find the original thread, probably because I didn't look too hard

I wanted to let everyone in CO know that I made some phone calls today about our beloved Cat Fountain and when it will actually be open.

I found out that Cat Fountain stopped running about 7-8 years ago.  Since the democratic national convention (DNC) is coming to town, they want downtown Denver to not look shitty -- so they want to have it up and running well before the convention starts, which is in August.

With that said, the definite projection date is Aug 1 and if that date is NOT met then the whole point of having it up and running by the DNC will be null and void.  So that is GOOD news because our date of the Aug 8-10 National Jam means that the fountain will be up and running and no longer fenced off!!!

But, will it be legal for people to be jumping and running through the fountain?  The answer is YES.

The original intent of Cat Fountain was so that people could walk through it, thats why there are all those little platforms there.  The bottom of the fountain will be filled with water and the little platforms act as bridges that people can walk through.  The guy I spoke with on the phone said that running and jumping on the fountain won't be discouraged, at ALL since this was the original intent of the fountain.

Precision Fountain should ALSO be up and running by Aug 8-10.  This means that precision fountain will now have water flowing down the stairs. 

Both fountains have no water spouts that shoot out.  All of the water flows down in a laminar fashion (meaning smooth and controlled).  The water will be flowing out of the top (and they will likely be replacing the grates..) and overflowing down the sides.  This means that you can still practice cat to cat and other cool techniques there if you don't mind getting wet.  The techs will also be harder to execute since water will be running all over, which means us CO Traceurs will be even more badass

The guy I spoke with has pics of the fountain running from the 80s.  He is going to send them to me via email and I will post them up here once i get them.

This is great news and now i am even more psyched to get this fountain up and running!

dude, i got the pics...

People were jumping around on this thing in the pics too, back in the 80s.

I'm going to host them and post them up -- i really think that jumping around these things is not going to be a problem at all, according to these pics anyway..

then again, the 80s were filled with playgrounds covered in cement and metal bars with no soft padding or wood chips, so they might be beefing up the rules a bit

Photos.  Parkour acceptable, according to these.

Look at the people all jumping around!





Here is precision fountain with running water...



Apparently, Cat Fountain used to be way cooler too.  That whole part this is grass now used to be another fountain with rocks and a waterfall.  Check out old photos and aerial views.






Sigh, those look so cool, too...but were ripped up because they stopped working and the tenants in the building thought they were ugly.

Oh well, we still get a badass, cool down parkour spot out of it!

probably recirculating filtered water, like in a pool....not constant fresh water.  It would probably run 24 hours until winter time when they would drain it, i assume.

Wow! That looks sooo much different! Why did they end up changing it? That's annoying.

As far as the water goes, I dunno. Last year it was tough enough having that many people climbing all over it, and then you add the water and it eliminates a large portion of what we can use... especially cats. But the flipside is that if it's running and we just wanna use it as a cool off location (like the fountain at the Philly Jam) that could be cool.  Long and short of it, I don't see it being a majority destination as it would be when it's dry. I'll just keep my fingers crossed that they can't get it flowing by Aug 1!

if its not open on aug 1 it will still be fenced off..

I was around there yesterday or the day before and the fences were mostly down, there was a sign posted stating it would be done on Aug. 1st and asking people to respect the fountain and keep off so work could get done on time.

I never knew cat fountain before the tiles or the construction, but I hope it will not affect my ability to jam there when it's open again...