Fountain
This fountain, located in the front of the Secretariat Building, is a spouting fountain within a circular pool. The pool floor is decorated with a symmetrical wave pattern with alternating bands of black and white pebbles. The distinctive wave bands give the pool movement, especially when the spouting water falls to the water surface.
The Fountain was donated by UNAUSA (renamed in 1945 from American Association for the United Nations) who sponsored a campaign to raise funds for the project. Children from the USA, including the District of Colombia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, donated part of their savings and raised $50,000 for the fountain installation. At night the fountain is illuminated by specially designed lights placed beneath the sprays.
The black and white pebbles are from Greece, given as a separate gift, and in 1964, the bronze sculpture entitled ‘Single Form,’ was added in memory of the late Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold.
The fountain dedication was on 26 June 1952, the anniversary of the signing of the United Nations charter at the San Francisco Conference of 1945.
A high-school girl from Seattle, representing the children of the United States of America, unveiled a bronze plaque which states that the fountain was given to the United Nations by children as a “gesture of friendship to the children of the world and a constant reminder of our hope for a peaceful world throughout the United Nations.”