Marcia Greenwood

@MarciaGreenwood

Update: Per a follow-up call to the city, work on this project is behind schedule and won't be completed until spring 2017.

When it first opened in 1975, Manhattan Square Park was billed as “a recreational oasis in an urban desert,” according to a Democrat and Chronicle story.

And for a time it was, thanks to a massive fountain that cascaded over concrete terraces and steps and into a shallow pool in the park’s basin. The design was by Lawrence Halprin, one of the country’s most prominent landscape architects and a “fancier of beautiful public fountains,” the newspaper noted.

Around 15 years later, the city shut off the water for good, citing mechanical breakdowns, algae problems and safety concerns (two children cut their feet on broken glass). Manhattan Square Park became a dry, dusty study in sharply angled concrete — and a large part of that urban desert it was supposed to alleviate.

Great news, though: It won’t be long before the water is flowing again at what now is called Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Park at Manhattan Square. As we write this, the fountain’s mechanical system is being replaced, says Jeff Mroczek, the city’s landscape architect, and officials expect to re-water the park by late summer after the Party in the Park concert series wraps up. Although the $1.7 million project could possibly take longer, and the contractor has until the end of September to complete the work, says city engineer Jim McIntosh.

One change: The fountain’s shallow basin (originally a couple of feet deep in places) is being made even more shallow (around six inches) to discourage wading, McIntosh says.

No biggie, really, for the return of an oasis.