The Lion’s Fountain
Culver City, California
The Lion’s Fountain
Location
Town Plaza, Culver City, California
Materials
Bronze sculpture with interactive fountain and programmable water jets
Overview
The Lion’s Fountain is an interactive public fountain centered on a bronze lion surrounded by forty animated jets of water. Located in the Town Plaza of Culver City, the fountain has become one of the city’s most recognizable gathering places, inviting visitors of all ages to step into the space and play in the water.
Story of the Commission
The City of Culver City commissioned the project as part of the creation of a new civic plaza designed to bring people into the downtown district. The goal was to create a focal point that would activate the plaza and encourage people to linger in the space.
Concept
Freeman envisioned the fountain as a sculptural performance between water, movement, and visitors. The bronze lion anchors the composition while forty programmed jets create an ever-changing pattern of water that invites people to run, dance, and play within the fountain.
Design Process
The design began with clay studies of the lion and early fountain layouts exploring how visitors might move through the water. Working with designers and engineers, Freeman developed the arrangement of jets so the fountain would create moments of surprise and motion while remaining safe and accessible.
Installation and Public Life Today
Since its installation, the fountain has become the social center of Culver City’s Town Plaza. Children run through the jets during warm afternoons while visitors gather around the sculpture. The fountain has become a beloved landmark and a defining feature of the plaza.
Small Works from the Studio
Bronze
25” H × 21” W
This bronze maquette was created as part of the design process for The Lion’s Fountain. While developing the fountain, Doug Freeman produced a small maquette that was placed directly into the site model to explore the relationship between the sculpture, the water, and the surrounding space.
This larger maquette was made to study the lion itself—its gesture, balance, and overall composition. At 25 inches tall with a 21-inch span across the forearms, the piece allowed Freeman to refine the form and character of the figure before scaling the sculpture to its final monumental size.
Like many of Freeman’s working models, the maquette is both a design tool and a finished sculpture in its own right, capturing the energy and presence that would ultimately shape the completed fountain.