In the summer of 1995, Mr. Steve Wynn invited WET Design
to participate in the design and development of the Bellagio
resort in Las Vegas, Nevada. Mr. Wynn's vision included a
grand fountain located in the lake in front of the hotel, to
attract and delight all passersby. His objective was a work
that would be large and commanding in scale; and it would
provide kinetic entertainment for all those strolling on the
boulevard. Music was to be a focal aspect of the feature.
Above all, Wynn's purpose was to create a fountain that
embodied the spirit of romance, that would be forever
associated with the resort, and that would become the most
ambitious water feature ever imagined.

With these criteria WET began.

Mark Fuller, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of WET,
and Claire Tuttle, Director of Design, devised a program that
included extensive drawing, models, mock-ups and
prototypes of the concept that were reviewed by Mr. Wynn
and his associates on a weekly basis.

Drawings were prepared that outlined the feature's form and
location. They defined its position in relation to the hotel, its
center point of focus, as well as its breadth and presence on
the lake. A series of alternate layouts of the fountain's shape
were presented to Mr. Wynn, all of them designed with the
feature's animation in mind. The plan of the feature was
driven by WET's objective of creating an instrument capable
of producing, when choreographed, as much fluidity,
variation and range of expression--from grand gesture to
subtle nuance--as possible. The soul of the fountain's form,
and the motive for the selection of technologies, was that of
flexibility and variety. This ensured that the feature would
effectively play to the varying musical styles and idioms in
an ever-growing library of musical selections.

WET designed and manufactured a collection of
technological devices specifically for the Bellagio. The
objective, as with the form of the fountain, was that of
versatility and breadth. By including the Shooter technology,
the fountain could integrate with the more rythmically driving
passages in the music. Both MiniShootersŪ and
SuperShootersŪ (driven to record setting heights of over 240
feet) were included to respond to both commanding and
delicate aspects in the music. The pulsing character of the
Shooters would create the feature's spirals, linear passages,
and high-speed chases.

WET conceived the Oarsman nozzle to address the more
lyrical and legato passages in the music. Each Oarsman can
tilt and sway through any position in an upward expressed
cone. It was designed to bend and weave in an infinite array
of gestures, responding to the most subtle and interpretive
elements of the music.

Fog was introduced to amplify atmospheric passages in
musical selections, inviting a more impressionistic approach
in works such as the tone poems of Aaron Copland.

Illumination was a critical consideration in the feature's
effectiveness, as the fountain performances were designated
primarily for evening. White incandescent light was chosen
by Mr. Wynn to give the Fountain its vibrancy, its brilliance,
and its grandeur. There are over two and a half million watts
of light, created by over 4,000 individually controlled light
fixtures.

Once the conceptual design was complete, and the feature's
location, form and technologies defined, WET studied the
work's effectiveness in three dimensional models and
mock-ups. Models were developed to explore the feature's
form and to address technical concerns of scale and access.

In order to ensure that the feature was appropriately scaled,
a full-scale prototype was developed and positioned on-site.
In addition to size, WET was able, in this mockup, to study
the site's wind conditions, and the fountain's kinetics.