Specs: Project Management for Mountain Mirage

Time: Original installation 1997. Major restoration 2001 and 2007

Budget: Restoration costs approximately $150,000; Annual maintenance budget is approximately $50,000.

Details: After several years Mountain Mirage was in need of major restoration. Hardware was re-engineered and replaced with updated equipment. The challenge: bring the artwork back to the artists orignial intent, varying heights of water flow to create mountain iconography as intended. Solution: Insisted that internal plumbing team lead all implementation for any and all new design. Contractors were eliminated, saving DIA over $200,000 per year. Talented plumbing department invested in fountain's appearance and the importance of the sculpture to aesthetics of DIA.

Project team: Colleen Fanning, Art Program Manager, Denver International Airport; project manager during renovation; Mark Kelley, DMJM Aviation; Don Gaasvig and his staff, Plumbing, DIA; Mimi Moore, Project Manager of installation.

Art

Mountain Mirage, Doug Hollis

Mountain Mirage, located in the Great Hall of Jeppesen Terminal, was chosen for its conceptual metaphor of the Colorado Rocky Mountains. This fountain is made up of 3,456 nozzles which are adjusted at various heights to replicate the jagged peaks of the Rockies. Four site-specific projects integrated into the Great Hall, by artists Betty Woodman, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Anna Murch and Doug Hollis, tell a story about Colorado and create a sense of place to more than 50 million passengers per year.

Art: Scale to architecture

Mountain Mirage, Doug Hollis

Mountain Mirage compliments the architecture of Jeppesen Terminal. The tensile fabric roof by Fentress Architects is one of the largest naturally day lit structures in the world. In the great hall of Jeppesen Terminal, the fountain acts as a way-finding device that is frequently used as a backdrop by television media news and most importantly as a meeting place for loved ones and friends.