Bartolo Torres
Bartolo Torres
Dawn of Man. WET had nothing to do with this.
Cavemen find water, mistakenly name it fire. This changes when they discover actual fire (in 1,750,000 BC), which they then promptly name Iron.
Bullies at an elementary school in Utah stick 8-year old Mark Fuller's head in a toilet, giving him a swirly. Mark is intrigued by the pattern the water makes. He is less intrigued by the smell.
Mark Fuller investigates water behavior while studying at the University of Utah. He discovers the means to generate arcs of axisymmetric laminar water. He hunts down bullies from elementary school and uses laminar streams to hose them, feels very little satisfaction. Mark then builds the LeapFrog water feature for EPCOT Center in Florida, sends pictures of his success to the bullies, and feels very satisfied.
Six men spend 48 hours walking underwater across Sydney Harbor apparently they could not bring themselves to ask for other directions. Mark Fuller co-founds WET Enterprises, Inc., a company dedicated to the design and implementation of cutting-edge water experiences.
WET, now re-named WET Design to reaffirm design as the company's principle core, conceives a dramatic expanse of waterscape for the Allied Bank in Dallas, Texas. Working in conjunction with the firm of I.M. Pei and landscape architects Dan Kiley and Peter Kerr Walker, WET invents a fountain that springs from a "vanished pool". Pioneered and patented by WET, vertical water jets emerge from openings in the plaza surface. When not operating, the fountain location becomes a dry extension of the plaza. It takes 6 months for bank tellers at Allied Bank to learn not to eat their lunch on the vanished pool surface.
The Los Angeles Music Center commissions WET to design and build a fountain encircling the site's famous sculpture, Peace on Earth, by Jacques Lipchitz. A study published in Paris finds that swimming with dolphins appears to alleviate mild to moderate depression in humans. The study is inconclusive as to what it does to the dolphins, but it appears to piss them off.
Historically low rainfall is blamed for poor apple crops, forcing Halloween trick-or-treaters to bob for toads. WET begins several high profile restorations, including the Prometheus Fountain at Rockefeller Center in New York City and Philip Johnson's Garden Fountain at New York's Museum of Modern Art. Additionally, WET introduces the MiniShooter, the first of its innovative fountain technologies to incorporate compressed air. As an integral part of WET's first project in Asia, the Seto Ohashi Exhibition in Sakaide City, Japan, the MiniShooter is used to propel individually choreographed columns of water 50 feet into the air.
Low flush toilets are required in all new California homes. Mark Fuller installs one, gives himself a swirly so he can identify new water patterns. His wife is not amused. WET designs its first interior water feature at the Gas Company Tower building in Los Angeles, California. The elegant waterscape becomes part of a series of seamless elements that rhythmically interweave through voids and perforations in the architecture of the building's elevator lobby and adjacent exterior.
WET takes on projects in Singapore, Bangkok, and Jakarta, establishing its presence in Southeast Asia. WET designers learn to use chopsticks that aren't tied together with rubber bands and handed out to children.
WET is awarded the Allied Professions Honor Award by the American Institute of Architects for its unique approach to fountain design. WET completes its most ambitious water feature ever in terms of technological and choreographic complexity and scale. The Fountains of Bellagio, at the Bellagio Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada, which fill an 8 acre lake in front of the hotel are the grandest and, perhaps most well known, kinetic fountains in the world. They incorporate a network of pipes with more than 1,200 nozzles, which are synchronized with 4,500 lights, all choreographed to a comprehensive selection of music that includes opera, classical, and Broadway tunes. Songs not used (for obvious reasons) include: Smoke On The Water, Water Runs Dry, Bridge Over Troubled Water and, of course, the Theme From Jaws.
Getting into the spirit of the Olympics, WET designers form their own synchronized swimming team but immediately disband when one very large guy from engineering insists on wearing a speedo. On the heels of completing projects in Spain, Portugal, and Puerto Rico, WET is awarded the commission to design the Cauldron for the Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City. Utilizing the elements of fire and water, the Cauldron is made up of a 130 foot tall crystalline tower with an intricate design that echoes the snowflake logo of these Winter Olympics. Water cools the glass and keeps it clean so that the Olympic flame can be seen within the transparent chalice. After the Olympics, the Cauldron is moved to a permanent site at the University of Utah's Rice Eccles Stadium, where it is re-lit every year, for 17 days, to commemorate the 2002 Olympics.
WET takes part in the renovation of the historic Brooklyn Museum, developing the water expressions fountain as part of the museum's expansion. Additionally, WET publishes its first book about the making of the Fountains Of Bellagio, an illustrated coffee table book that documents the project's design, development, and installation. It quickly shoots to number one on the New York Times Non-Fiction Bestseller list and stays there for 48 weeks. Not really. But it should have been, because it's a very cool book with astounding photos by renowned photographer Ira Kahn. There are still copies available if you happen to want to buy one.
WET collaborates with the Olin Partnership to create the fountains at Columbus Circle in New York. Located in the heart of Manhattan, at the base of the AOL Time Warner Towers at Broadway, Eight Avenue and 59th Street, the circle marks one of the main entrances to Central Park. Concentric rings of greenery along with wooden benches and inviting terraced pools create a serene destination for kids and adults alike. What it's doing in New York City, we have no clue.
Working again with Steve Wynn, WET creates The Fountains of the
Performance Lake at Wynn Macau. Lofty plumes of water and fire,
graceful elegant streams, and a dazzling show of color and
light, all dance to music permeating the grand lake in front of
the spectacular Wynn Macau. Bursts of fire punctuate stunning
choreography that express a complexity of moods, rhythms, and
emotions. Over 200 water nozzles and Shooters, 1,000
individually controlled colored lights and seven different
imposing fire experiences highlight this one-of-a-kind
entertainment experience.
The Ice Hotel, a hotel made completely out of ice built in a
small village inside the Arctic Circle, commemorates its 15th
anniversary. Owners of the hotel celebrate by breaking off a
chunk of the bell hop desk, dropping it in a glass, and pouring
champagne over it.
A Chicago company manufactures Liquid OM, a super purified bottled water. The water is said to contain vibrations that promote a positive outlook. The water is said to possess an energy field that can be felt when holding the bottle and drinking from it. WET employees drink 118 bottles waiting to feel the energy. All they feel is the need for WET to add an additional restroom. WET creates distinct water features near Beijing's Forbidden City and on a narrow strip of land near the Washington Ferry Terminal. Both waterscapes help in the rebirth and revitalization of previously dormant urban areas.
WET celebrates its 25th anniversary. Mark Fuller gives every designer a swirly as a gift. They were hoping for coffee mugs. Working with EDAW landscape architects, WET creates the harbor-enlivening Fanfare at San Pedro Gateway, a water feature that offers a dramatic entryway for visitors arriving by ship, foot, or by trolley. WET also transforms the Mirage Hotel and Casino's iconic volcano feature into an astonishing audio/visual display that builds to a 60 ft eruption sending waves of heat through the air and over the audience. The new volcano brings a potent convergence of sensory experience and hot-blooded thrill to the Las Vegas Strip. Bring sunscreenand maybe a hat.
WET designs and installs the world's largest fountain at The Burj in Dubai. Utilizing the latest technology in lighting and robotics, along with WET's increasingly powerful signature water Shooters, The Dubai Fountain defies gravity. With 6,600 WET SuperLights (the most advanced incandescent large fountain lights available today) and 50 color projectors, WET creates an unparalleled visual spectrum of over 1,000 water expressions that bewitch and bedazzle.
Mark Fuller appears on Oprah and, with the input of the live studio audience, he designs and builds a fountain instantly, right there on the stage. The fountain, called the Oprah, because she names everything after herself, takes only minutes to construct because it is made from Mark's newest patented invention: A small rotating grid with a variety of built-in, mini-micro water Shooters that, when attached to a personal music device, such as an iPod, automatically syncs the mini laminar flow streams to the desired music. It's an immediate, personalized waterscape. Oprah promptly orders 320 of them and gives them out to her studio audience, who like the fountains very much but were really hoping to get their own personal rocket ships, like yesterday's audience got.