The Fountain Café was designed to enhance the experience of Riverfront Park and Rotary Fountain visitors by contributing significantly to a sense of place and identity, inviting social interaction and enhancing the visitors’ experiences to Riverfront Park and the Fountain itself.

The aesthetic goal and design approach were to make the project feel visually unobtrusive and not compete with the Rotary Fountain by creating the feeling it was adapted from native basalt formations. An organic curvilinear shape dominates the design, with the building’s footprint and dining patio nesting comfortably east of the Gondola meadow. An existing mature Sycamore was carefully preserved and forms a graceful canopy over the Cafe, providing important shade for dining customers.