A Rich History

In the 1850s, Goodale Park, together with the Washington Mall and St. Louis’ Lafayette Park, was one of the pioneering precursors to New York’s Central Park. These parks were inspired by the writings and designs of the foremost American landscape architect of his day, Andrew Jackson Downing (1815-1852), who championed natural forms, simple structures, and public access. On a scale then unmatched elsewhere in the country, Goodale Park combined private philanthropy with municipal resources. Named for its donor, Columbus physician and merchant Dr. Lincoln Goodale, Goodale Park was donated in 1851 as a public park open to all residents. At the time, Goodale Park became the largest municipal “pleasure ground” in the United States.

A Vibrant Present

Today, after a century and a half, Goodale Park is a community gem in the heart of the Short North. People come from throughout Columbus to sit by the lake and elsewhere, to talk, to jog, to exercise their dogs; to enjoy the spectacular blooms of the Magnolia Grove and other plantings throughout the Park. The picnic area and tennis courts are popular, as is the playground; the ball diamond gets informal use. The Gazebo is a popular site for weddings, summer jazz concerts and poetry readings. Families and small groups use the park for reunions and cookouts. Each June, the three-day Community Festival provides multiple venues for an incredible array of musical talent and hosts a popular street fair. The Park also serves as the assembly place for the annual DooDah and Gay Pride Parades. The shelter house is used extensively for meetings. During the winter, skaters take to the lake, and sledders use the bowl by Buttles Avenue. At 155 years old, Goodale Park remains very much Columbus’s central-city pleasure ground.

Malcolm Cochran

Friends of Goodale Park and BrickStreet Arts Association in cooperation with the City of ColumbusDepartment of Recreation and Parks, have joined forces to bring about another public/private partnership to benefit the Park and the public. Their goal is to revitalize one of the historic park’s most cherished features, the lake (originally built in 1875) with a historically-sensitive, naturalistic, and functional water feature, Tête-à-Tête Falls. Designed by nationally renowned artist Malcolm Cochran, Tête-à-Tête Falls will be built with the expertise of a water engineering firm and stone masons whose prior works are featured, among other national sites, on the Mall in Washington, DC, and at the Cleveland Art Museum. Attuned to its natural and historic surroundings, Tête-à-Tête Falls promises to becom another highlight in the park’s long and distinguished historyof public/private collaboration.

John Marshall & Malcolm Cochran, 2005.
Photo: David Highben

TÊTE-À-TÊTE FALLS FOR GOODALE PARK

Artist: Malcolm Cochran

Tête-à-Tête Falls is a two-part, two-sided sculpture constructed of split-face granite block to be sited in the north lobe of the Goodale Park Lake. Water pumped to a trough at the top of the form will cascade over weirs on the interior sides of the structure creating twin horseshoe waterfalls.

On the backsides, it will flow over and down the two stepped, beehive-shaped forms creating different and variable water displays on all surfaces. Central to this concept is the desire to create a year-round water feature. Tête-à-Tête Falls is designed as much for the winter months, when ice will form in constantly shifting and unpredictable ways, as it is for the other seasons.

All panoramic views, digital models, and digital renderings: John Marshall. www.roofoftwo.com

ARTISTIC DESIGN

Cochran typically approaches commissioned projects by researching the physical, historical, and present-day attributes of the site for which the work is intended. In developing the concept and design for this project, he studied views of water falls, in particular the Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls; Croton Dam, Croton, NY, a monumental stone construction which creates one of the major reservoirs for New York City; and the design of Victorian tête-à-tête chairs.

The sculpture echoes the history of the park and its surroundings in specific ways: Formally, the curvilinear vocabulary of the Falls mirrors the shape of the Lake and the non-linear layout of the Park in general. In referencing tête-à-tête chairs, a Victorian innovation intended to encourage conversation and interaction, Cochran draws a parallel between this curious product of the Victorian imagination and the long history of Goodale Park as Columbus’s oldest public gathering space. The use of granite alludes to the various stone gateways to the Park and to the adjacent houses built after 1870. Snapshots of the former fountain in Goodale Park during winter confirmed his interest in designing a simple, strong sculptural element for the Park that would be visually active year-round. Further research made the artist aware of a long history of rockwork structures and water features in the Park. Cochran’s aim is “to create a memorable element that is integral to the Park and reinforces the physical, social, and historical context of this central-city oasis.”

Icemound 1995
Terry Sherburn Collection

Field of Corn (with Osage Orange trees)
Photo: Malcolm Cochran

ARTIST’S BIOGRAPHY

Malcolm Cochran was born in Pittsburgh and grew up in New Hampshire. He received his undergraduate degree in 1971 from Wesleyan University (CT) and his MFA in 1973 from Cranbrook Academy of Art. From 1974—1986 he returned to live in New Hampshire, supporting his studio work as Exhibition Designer and Curator at the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College. Since 1987 he has taught in the Department of Art at The Ohio State University, Columbus, where he is currently Professor and Coordinator of Sculpture. Cochran has received fellowships and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Ohio Arts Council among others.

Cochran has created large-scale objects, installations, and site-specific works since the late-1970s. His first outdoor project was created at Artpark, a laboratory for site-specific sculpture on the Niagara River just above Niagara Falls, in 1981. Other temporary public projects followed—for the Arts festival of Atlanta (1984), Johnson State College, Vermont (1986), and Socrates Sculpture Park, New York City (1987). His permanent public commissions include projects in Brattleboro, Vermont; for the Cleveland Public Library and the Cleveland Restoration Society; and Private Passage, a 30’ long x 8’-6” diameter bottle which houses a free recreation of the stateroom of an ocean liner completed last year for the Hudson River Park, New York City. He is best known in Columbus for Field of Corn (1994) in Dublin. In addition to Tête-à-Tête Falls, Malcolm Cochran is currently working in Columbus on a commission for the north reflecting pool of the new Ohio Supreme Court on Front Street.

WATER ENGINEERING

Part of the impetus for this fountain project derived from the need to improve the quality of the water quality in the Goodale Park Lake. The organizing committee and the representatives of the Department of Recreation and Parks recognize that the existing fountain is under scaled relative both to the size of the Lake and to the rate and volume of water it re-circulates. As a result, the water quality suffers during summer months, and algae blooms are frequent. In developing Tête-à-Tête Falls, Cochran has consulted with CMS Collaborative, Inc., an internationally respected fountain design firm which has been entrusted with some of the world’s most prestigious and challenging projects. To create the water display Cochran envisions, engineers at CMS Collaborative have calculated a flow of approximately 2300 gallons per minute. The increased volume and the combination of water falling to the surface of the lake and cascading over the stepped beehive forms will significantly improve the aeration of the pond water.

Volunteers' Garden,
Cleveland Restoration Society
Photo: Doug Cox

S T O N E W O R K

Stone masons at ScotStone, Inc., Cleveland, under the supervision of Scotty Cruickshank, will construct Tête-à-Tête Falls. For the past twenty years, ScotStone has provided the skill and expertise on stonework in commercial, residential, and institutional projects throughout this region and in select parts of the country. For a major restoration in 2003 of the terraces and balustrades of The Cleveland Museum of Art, ScotStone was awarded the Golden Trowel Award from the International Masonry Institute and the Pinnacle Award from the Marble Institute of America. Cochran first worked with ScotStone on a project for the Cleveland Restoration Society in 2001; in addition to this public artwork, the firm is involved with Cochran’s project for the north reflecting pool at the new home of the Ohio Supreme Court on Front Street, Columbus, to be completed in 2006.

Community Partnership

Friends of Goodale Park (FGP) has worked closely since its inception in 1984 with the Columbus Department of Recreation and Parks to maintain and improve Goodale Park. In that time, over 300 trees have been added to replace lost or damaged trees. The Ohio State University School of Natural Resources uses the park as a laboratory for its forestry students because of the park’s impressive array of unique specimen trees. FGP has worked to improve and tend flowerbeds and to plan long-term improvements to the Park. It has spearheaded the addition of lighting, benches and trash receptacles throughout the Park, the construction of the gazebo, and a multi-year project to replace crumbling sidewalks, to resurface the tennis courts, and to restore the terraces at the Shelter House. Between investments by the City, donated funds, and grants obtained by FGP, nearly $1.5 million in improvements have been made to Goodale Park over the last twenty years. Friends of Goodale Park has been the most durable and effective volunteer effort in the history of the Park.

BrickStreet Arts Association (BSSA) is a community-based public arts organization which teamed-up with Friends of Goodale Park to commission a unique water feature for Goodale Park. Since its founding in 2000, BSAA has sought to bring public art to Columbus’ historic districts by combining community involvement with high-quality artistic design. On its own, and in collaboration with other groups, BSAA has raised well over $100,000 for public art projects through a combination of competitive funds from the City of Columbus; and donations from businesses and individuals. BrickStreet Arts Association played an instrumental role in the realization of the Harrison West Side-by-Sidesculptures by Charlotte Lees, the George Bellows mural reproduction of The Cliff Dwellers by Curtis Goldstein and Michelle Attias, and Limestone Couch by Robert Huff. In 2005, BSAA was honored as the recipient of the Columbus Landmarks Foundation Award for “Outstanding Community Group.”

Donations

Contributions to the Tete-a-Tete Falls project may be made to Friends of Goodale Park.

Please make checks payable to: Friends of Goodale Park
Please indicate Tête-à-Tête Falls in the memo line.

Mail contributions to:
Andy Klein, Treasurer
Friends of Goodale Park
PO Box 10038
Columbus, OH 43201-0538

For further information, please contact:
Stan Sells at 299-4202 or sells192@sbcglobal.net
Maddy Weisz at 291-2285 or weisz.2@osu.edu

Friends of Goodale Park is a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization.
All donations to FGP are tax-deductible as permitted by law.