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Giddings Fountain Beats Buckingham to the Punch and 'Switches on Summer'

By Patty Wetli | April 28, 2015 9:07am

LINCOLN SQUARE — The city's prepping for a huge celebration May 9 to "Switch on Summer" at Grant Park's Buckingham Fountain, but Lincoln Square beat Downtown to the punch.

No fanfare required: As of Monday, the water is flowing again in Giddings/Kempf Plaza.

DNAinfo/Patty Wetli

Newcomers to the neighborhood might be surprised to learn that the fountain and plaza, which lend the area much of its Old World charm and essentially put the square in Lincoln Square, are relatively recent additions to the community's landscape.

The fountain was dedicated Sept. 10, 1999, in tandem with the plaza's quaint brick pavers and performance stage. The water works quickly became one of Lincoln Square's most identifiable markers, even chosen to represent the Square in a series of neighborhood posters.

Credit: StudioChris

It's also a popular repository for wishes — in the form of coins — and a favorite target of pranksters. Bubble bath, anyone?

Credit: Instagram/Huck1eberry

In a 2010 article, Chicago Tribune architecture critic Blair Kamin praised the plaza as the "poster child" for the sort of gathering space the city needs more of in order to "humanize" its neighborhoods.

"Chicago can't depend on its marquee public spaces alone," Kamin wrote. "We still need more intimate Kempf Plazas."

 

Giddings Fountain is on.

A video posted by Patty Wetli (@pwetli) on

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