Fountain figures might pour cold water on project

As workers pounded in tall fence posts and moved stacks of metal barriers into Washington Square Park on Monday and Tuesday, cordoning off the area for Phase I of the park’s renovation, opponents were making a last-ditch effort to derail the project.

Luther Harris, a plaintiff on an environmental lawsuit against the project that was defeated last week, personally funded a study of whether moving the park’s fountain would add to the cost of its renovation. Parks Department Commissioner Adrian Benepe has publicly stated that there is no cost difference between repairing the fountain in place or repairing it and moving it.

Anthony Walmsley, a New York City-based landscape architect hired by Harris, determined that moving the fountain would add more than $500,000 to the $2.5 million cost of refurbishing the fountain.

Fountain figures might pour cold water on project.