Job Details
Contractor
Green Island Design, Deer Park, N.Y.
Team
Mark Pappalardi, Senior Designer; Jon Pappalardi, President
Site
The Melting Pot, Farmingdale, N.Y.
In the fall of 2007, The Melting Pot, a national chain/franchise fondue restaurant, opened a new location in Farmingdale, N.Y. The property was located on a busy highway and had changed hands multiple times in recent years, so the contractor sought to create a new identity for the owners while generating interest and word of mouth.
The designers conceptualized “The Preserve,” an 8-by-5-foot fountain made of South Bay Quartzite stacked stone. The fountain resembles the shape, sound and feel of an actual melting pot, complete with bubbling water that appears to simmer at the top – as if it were truly boiling – and then cascades down the structure’s tapered sides. The designers derived inspiration from the work of renowned British sculptor Andy Goldsworthy. Accordingly, the Preserve resembles the shape of Goldsworthy’s famous “Cairn.”
The fountain is designed to recycle water, which enters an underground, gravel-filled basin and migrates to a hidden pump before it’s forced up through the unit’s center, when the process is then repeated. The fountain is equipped with a heater, which is controlled by a thermostat and warms the water in the winter to prevent it from freezing. This also allows for gas exchanges on the surface, creating steam that escapes into the night sky, just when the restaurant is most frequented. Line Voltage landscape lights were positioned to expose the highly detailed stonework, creating unusual shadows.
The Preserve now stands along the roadway, visible from a half mile away.
Quick Facts: "The Preserve"
Annual revenue: $1,000,000+
Number of employees: 12
Service mix: 90 percent design, 10 percent maintenance
Client mix: 80 percent residential, 20 percent commercial
Project area: 40 square feet
Total labor hours: 180
Subcontracted services: None
Initial project estimate:
$15,000.00
Key materials:
South Bay Quartzite stacked stone
4-foot drywell
Aquascape liners
Aquascape 3000 series pump
River rock (for base of fountain)
Equipment:
Bobcat S185 Backhoe (rental)
Awards: Distinction Award,
PLANET’s 39th Annual Environmental Improvement Awards Program
Project Q&A
PLD: How did you sell the job?
GID: When The Melting Pot opened a new location, Green Island Design recognized the need for immediate curb appeal – something different that would draw potential customers into the restaurant. We approached the owners with a virtual tour of the potential project: a 3-D movie of the structure and its surroundings using various motion software to show the client the finished product before it was built. (See an example of the movie at
www.greenislanddesign.com.) The client fell in love with the project – 10 days before the grand opening. We needed to design, engineer and build the project within that time frame.
PLD: How did you fulfill special client requirements?
GID: We provided a strategic solution for the owners, who were mandated by the town to plant trees every 20 feet along the entire storefront. Unfortunately, the trees scheduled for planting were so dense that they threatened to block both the restaurant’s storefront and sign. Our clients feared applying for a variance to position their sign above the tree elevation would delay their opening date. We advised them to position their sign beneath the tree canopy, eliminating the need for a variance. We also recommended planting Thundercloud Plums to provide more transparency.
PLD: What challenged you during installation?
GID: We faced many challenges as we brought the project to fruition. The main challenge was the construction of the structure. An original concept, we had to engineer it from top to bottom. The basin was excavated to a depth of 3 feet, with a 15-foot circumference, to meet New York state code. The backbone of the Preserve became a 4-by-4-foot drywell, which needed to be lowered into place with a backhoe on a roadway with an extremely high traffic volume. Once the drywell was in place, each piece of South Bay Quartzite was milled and cemented. In order to achieve a uniform cantilevered effect, our designers devised a wood template that was used to measure the degree of curvature needed to execute the convex shape. This allows the water to cascade evenly down all sides of the structure. In order to centralize the weight and load bearing capacity of the outer stones, additional rebar was threaded from one side of the drywell to the other in a star-shaped pattern. This ensured that the stones would fully support their own weight.
Although this method provided a solution to structural challenges, it prevented us from attaining a hollow watertight center. As a result, a second reservoir had to be created at the very top above the rebar. This reservoir was lined independently from the larger collection basin at the base of the Preserve. In addition, low-voltage landscape lighting was snaked from the upper pool, between the drywell and stacked stone, and out through the drainage basin at the base. This allowed the bubbling water to be illuminated directly through its center.
PLD: Looking back on the project, what would you have done differently?
Because of the strict time frame, we would’ve liked to have more flexibility in our schedule to design, engineer and construct the project. But it was a unique opportunity for both parties and we needed to conform to the situation.
Since completion, have you added to the project?
The owner immediately expressed interest in developing a proprietary patent on our design plans for future franchisees to install a Preserve of their own as a unique and recognizable symbol of their theme.
What was the greatest lesson your company learned during this project?
We learned exactly what we were capable of under pressure. We realized we could think outside of the box and develop a truly unique project for a specific clientele base. And even under deadline pressure, we were able to go from concept to completion within a narrow timeframe. PLD