Wild and wondrous water towers across the heartland

Below are some of the amazing water towers we saw over the past few weeks across the American Heartland. As can be seen, the range of styles, locations, and eras is impressive. Hope you enjoy the photos as much as we did seeing them.

Giant City State Park, ILGroom, TXDepew, OKLansing, MIMakanda, ILAdrian, TXBritten (Groom), TXRushville, INReelsville, IN

While each tower has it’s own storied history, I’ve gotta, say the space-age tower with and observation platform at Giant City State Park in Illinois is a treasure all to itself. More photos and backstory about this most extraordinary water tower will be included in a separate post. Peace!

Rend Lake, ILBristow, OKMountain View, MOAmarillo, TX Lynn, IN Willow Springs, MO Meridian Twp, MI

#architecture #CET #cities #composite #design #engineering #fluted #fun #geography #history #hydropillar #Illinois #Indiana #landUse #Michigan #Missouri #NewMexico #Oklahoma #planning #preservation #spherical #Texas #TinMan #travel #water #waterTowers

The #column is the most complex component — not least because of the beautiful #capital at the top. It also offers the most opportunities for creative expression, as long as designers differentiate in the #decorativeElements, not #tectonicElements.

There are 3 subcomponents of a column — the #columnBase, #columnShaft, and #columnCapital. In the #IonicOrder, there are variants for each of these components, not just in the tectonic portions, but also in the decorative portions, and it is equally acceptable to mix and match them.

Classic variant of the column #base bears #Vignola's signature in a new #molding called #scotia. There's a "modern" version that has a newer Scotia. I am trying hard to resist the urge to call it #NovaScotia.

The column #shaft is not perfectly cylindrical. It gradually tapers off in the upper 2/3, has a plain unadorned variant, and a #fluted variant.

Classic variant of the column #capital has parallel flat #volute slabs only visible from the front and back, but not from the sides. There's also a modern variant that has curved volute faces on all four sides with pointed ends at all corners and optimized for use in a corner column, but not limited to that.

These variants can be freely intermixed in any combination of base, shaft, and capital. The sketch shows an Ionic column with a modern base, fluted shaft, and classic capital, but any other combination would be equally acceptable as long as all are internally consistent in a single #colonnade or #arcade.

Beyond these tectonic elements, there are decorative elements like the #eggsAndDarts motif in the #ovolo of the capital. The eggs can be convex or concave, the eggs and arrows can look different, or the Ovolo could have a completely different motif, or none at all.

The bell-shaped #scrolls between volute slabs are separated by a ribbon or belt with a 3-strand braid not seen in this sketch. If you design fashion accessories, experiment with other designs while maintaining proportions.