Waterfall Retreat Graces Holy Name Hospital

Photos courtesy of Liquid Designz

Opportunity recently knocked for Jerry Romano, a Certified Aquascape Contractor and owner of Liquid Designz in northern New Jersey. After completing a residential project featuring an 8-foot-by-8-foot patio side-pond with side waterfall and fish cave, the owner, Mike Maron, mentioned that Holy Name Hospital needed something similar but on a grander scale.

Maron turned out to be the hospital’s CEO, who promised the hospital nuns that he would install something beautiful at The Grotto, a serene location where employees often ate lunch and hospital visitors prayed for loved ones. Liquid Designz was hired for the project.

After completing The Grotto’s pondless waterfall, hospital executives hired Liquid Designz for the feature project — a waterfall feature to serve as the focal point of Holy Name’s new multimillion-dollar, state-of-the-art Emergency Room building. The design included four segments: a bog area, a shallow pond area, a running rapids and a basin.

The site included a natural slope with a noticeable twist where the dramatic water volume would run toward the Emergency Room’s waiting area, Romano said. “I was going crazy with the possibilities.”

Municipal code restrictions posed an inherent challenge to Romano’s plans for an elevated bog area to create a dramatic drop into the main pond. The team could not construct anything that exceeded half the height of a green railing that functions as a safety barrier to an 8-foot-by-12-foot cement wall drop-off that divides the ambulance parking area.

Creating the pond’s perimeter and exterior structure, located on a slope with assorted natural boulders, represented a more significant challenge for the team. “Trying to keep the boulders relatively similar in height while developing a level pond area was a true test of installation patience,” Romano said.

After completing the pond area, Romano envisioned a second but smaller waterfall exiting the pond area, located in an area highly visible to vehicles entering the ER. Limited to a few feet of working area due to a nearby curb, the team of three formed a small pool to eliminate splashing and connected a small land-bridge to direct the smaller waterfall spill to join up with the main waterfall, bringing the full 26,000 gph of water rushing and tumbling over the large boulders before disappearing into the basin. The end result is an attractive and serene water retreat for Holy Name employees and hospital visitors to enjoy.

“Liquid Designz and Jerry Romano exceeded our expectations,” Maron said. “We have received amazing feedback from the hospital’s patients, staff and visitors.”

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Waterfall Retreat Graces Holy Name Hospital

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