'Regret' over Diana fountain

[emad]

Stuart Jeffries
Tuesday October 12, 2004
The Guardian

The landscape architect who designed the Diana Memorial has apologised for underestimating how many people would visit her fountain in Hyde Park, central London, and for not anticipating some of the more revolting things they would do once they got there.

In an interview with the Guardian following the memorial's calamitous appearance, the award winning American architect, Kathryn Gustafson, said: "I feel we made a mistake letting people walk in the water. I apologise for that. I thought people would picnic near the memorial, and run their hands through the water, think about their lives, think about Diana."

She said that she did not anticipate that people would walk in the 210-metre oval water concourse, nor that dogs and used nappies would pollute it with their filth.

"When it first opened, 5,000 people an hour came to see it," she said. "How could you anticipate that? How can you solve a problem like that quickly? The turf around the oval couldn't survive those numbers." She dismissed suggestions that the memorial should be scrapped. "We just need time to solve the problems."
More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/monarchy/story/0,2763,1324993,00.html