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This is what all the testing with the Canadian fountain consultant has determined: The waterfalls at the World Trade Center memorial will be turned off during the winter, for fear of injuring visitors with flying droplets of ice. The LMDC decided to "winterize" the waterfalls because it would cost four times more (than the maintenance?) to heat the water for the falls to run smoothly. While the decision was the fiscally practical one, a mother of a WTC victim said, "It's like an eternal flame and you don't shut off an eternal flame. These things should have been considered in the beginning." Yeah, you'd think.
Today, the NY Times' David Dunlap looks at how the memorial's design is different from its initial design, due to the many, many constraints realized as the project moves forward for a 2009 completion. Here's the Lower Manhattan Development Corp's site on the memorial, Reflecting Absence. nd greg.org's coverage of WTC rebuilding is an excellent resource and commentary.
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One question, why can't this structure be enclosed, perhaps under a glass roof?
The big hint would be that the memorial is called reflecting absense, not reflecting a glass roof.
I personally think falling ice chunks might add to the experience. Or they could fill the fountain with vodka.
Far for me to day I told you so, but I told them so! I said the very first day this was announced that it wouldn't work in the winter.
p.s. They're not concerned about "flying droplets of ice." I don't know where Gothamist got this from since it's not in the article. It would be a very cold mist or drops with potential for freezing onto exposed surfaces on the coldest days. Cold rain or drizzle is never fun and it's even less fun in the wintertime. It's not for no reason that the famed "Maid of the Mist" boat doesn't run at the base of Niagara Falls from November through April.
Why don't they put salt in the water? Then it doesn't feeze. Morons.
Um, you might want to reconsider calling people morons lest you get it turned on you. It's not just the freezing potential. It's visitors getting sprayed with very cold mist by winter winds, which tend to be much stronger than summer winds. Being sprayed with near-freezing salt water is no more fun than being sprayed with similarly cold fresh water.