Diana fountain again has problems

LONDON - It has been fenced in, clogged with leaves, overrun with visitors and even used as a dog bath.

Now the Princess Diana memorial fountain is to close again to replace surrounding grass that has become sodden with splashing water, park officials said Tuesday.

And the memorial's creator, American architect Kathryn Gustafson, has acknowledged design flaws in the fountain. She said she did not anticipate the throngs of visitors who have flocked to the site.

The granite oval in London's Hyde Park will shut for an unspecified period in the next few weeks so the surrounding turf can be replanted, a spokesman for the Royal Parks said.

Workers also will install steel bars below bridges over the fountain to keep children from climbing under and becoming trapped.

It is the second closure for the $6.5-million fountain, unveiled amid great fanfare by Queen Elizabeth II on July 6. Within days, three people, including a child, slipped and injured themselves on the fountain's unexpectedly slick base of Cornish granite. A freak summer windstorm clogged it with leaves, flooding the surrounding fields.

The fountain was closed July 22 to make it safer. Authorities roughened the granite surface to give it more traction, erected a security fence and cameras, posted guards - dismissively dubbed the "paddle police" - and posted signs warning against walking or running in the water.

By the time it reopened Aug. 20, the fountain's image as a reflective stream flowing into a tranquil pool had taken a beating, and maintenance costs had soared. The government estimates the cost of maintaining the fountain at $250,000 for the first year and $211,000 annually after that.

Gustafson acknowledged she underestimated the number of people who would visit the memorial - or that many would run, splash and even wash their dogs in it.

"I feel we made a mistake letting people walk in the water. I apologize for that," Gustafson told the Guardian newspaper.

"I thought people would picnic near the memorial, walk by and run their hands through the water, think about their lives, think about Diana," she was quoted as saying.

Gustafson said the sheer number of visitors overwhelmed the structure.

"When it first opened, 5,000 people an hour came to see it," she told the Guardian. "How could you anticipate that?"

With the onset of cooler autumn weather, the number of visitors has fallen to about 1,000 a day on weekdays, park officials said.

Gustafson said she hoped as things calm down, the fence would eventually be removed. "We just need time to solve the problems," she said.

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