There’s More to a Fountain Than Meets the Eye

Fountains are often the stuff of dreams; designed to inspire, enthrall and attract visitors. However, executing concepts as they are envisioned takes a special kind of expertise. What gives Hydro Dramatics the edge in this respect is its operation as a division of the highly respected Missouri Machinery & Engineering Company.

By drawing on Missouri Machinery & Engineering Company’s 75 years of water engineering/pump experience and developing a creative team of fountain experts, Hydro Dramatics has established itself as a premier American fountain company, with a pattern of steady growth since its beginnings in 1972.

The firm’s fountain projects have run the entire gamut from small to large and from simple to one-of-a-kind complex. Among the types of projects Hydro Dramatics has handled across the nation and abroad are high-end residential, public park, botanical garden, corporate structures and monumental public art installations.

Over the years, world-class architectural firms, landscape architects, engineers, contractors and owners have relied on Hydro Dramatics for quality assistance in the mechanical and electrical designs of many of the nation’s most renowned fountains.

Over the years, we have worked with world-class architectural firms, landscape architects, engineers,
contractors and owners to design many of the nation’s most renowned fountains.

Key Personnel

Kerry Friedman

President

Years of Experience: 46 years (40 years with Hydro Dramatics)
Location: St. Louis Office

A veteran of the national and international water-pumping and hydraulics industries since 1971, Kerry has applied his expertise worldwide to a vast number of ambitious projects. Among these are the Gateway Geyser on the East St. Louis Riverfront, which is known as the tallest vertical jet system in the United States, and outstanding water features at Kiener Plaza and City Garden in downtown St. Louis and several of the water features within Forest Park and throughout the St, Louis Region.

A major thrust of Kerry’s work is to produce fountains with long-term reliability and ease of maintenance in mind: “One of our objectives is to produce and install Twenty-First Century control systems that enable us to operate, monitor and even shut down complex systems over the Internet or phone lines, whether the fountain is in Wichita, Puerto Rico or St. Louis. These capabilities assure our clients of our commitment to turning their design ideas into projects that will last.”

Kerry is an engineering graduate of the University of Missouri-Rolla with several awards throughout his career.

Dan Heinlein

Design Manager

Years of Experience: 45 years (30 years with Hydro Dramatics)
Location: St. Louis Office

A former Marine, Dan worked as a machinist for 20 years on the railroad and as an estimator with a mechanical contractor prior to joining Hydro Dramatics in 1989. Dan serves as design manager and is proficient in AutoCad design. In addition, Dan handles much of the purchasing and billing, along with project scheduling, trouble shooting and coordinating shipments.

Dan is especially proud of his work on the jumping jet (“Leaping Frog”) fountain at the world-famous Missouri Botanical Garden: “This fountain required more engineering than any other fountain we had designed up to that time. The laminar flow jets needed to be set at a specific arc degree. Even after all our calculations and drawings, we had to set the jets empirically by observation—quite a challenge.” Heinlein has also been instrumental in Hydro Dramatics’ work on numerous other fountains at the Missouri Botanical Garden.

Shawn Boyd

Project Manager & Designer

Years of Experience: 40 years (16+ years with Hydro Dramatics)
Location: St. Louis Office

Prior to joining Hydro Dramatic Shawn worked (15) years in construction services, (5) years in metal fabrication estimation, project management and shop drawing development, (4) years as a civil\ structural designer and a total of (16+) years with Hydro Dramatics as a project manager, mechanical\ electrical designer, and CAD lead. Shawn conducts project design, submittal compilation, specification writing, O&M Manual creation and equipment purchasing and shipment.

With over 350 designs, and counting, some of Shawn’s notable projects are: Lead designer on eighteen Bass Pro outdoor water features around the country; Lead designer for the Grand Basin water feature in the Post-Dispatch Lake, Forest Park, St. Louis; Lead designer for the Police and Firefighter Memorial water feature in Clayton MO; and lead designer for the O’Fallon (IL) Family Sports Park Splash Pad.

Shawn is a two-time Honors Graduate of Lewis & Clark Community College, and holds an Associate of Science Degree in Pre-engineering\ Math and an Associates of Applied Science degree in CAD Design.

Chris Moon

Water Feature Consultant

Years of Experience: 24 years (1 year with Hydro Dramatics)
Location: St. Louis Office

Chris manages our national consulting effort and handles initial design presentations and attends annual industry conferences. Chris serves as liaison for the clients, he attends initial design meetings, prepares preliminary design layouts, budget estimates and prepares proposals. He also attends any on–site construction management meetings when required. Chris has been with Hydro Dramatics team since 2018 and brought with him a wealth of experience in design, project management, service, and interaction with the landscape architecture profession.

Chris graduated from Purdue university with a BSLA of Landscape Architecture. He has held several positions in the St. Louis Chapter of ASLA including Chapter President.

Ryan Friedman

Fountain Technician

Years of Experience: 12 years (all with Hydro Dramatics)
Location: St. Louis Office

Once the project has been designed and installed, Ryan will visit the jobsite to make sure the water feature is up and running as designed. Ryan also provides any start-up and training for the client to make sure they understand how the water feature operates. Ryan has a vast knowledge of all components mechanically and electronically of water features. Ryan also oversees the UL Listed control panel shop within the Hydro Dramatics office.

Ryan studied at Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau, MO. He has completed the 10 Hour OSHA General Course, Unitronics training course, ABB VFD start-up course, along with other classes.