Splash Spots are designed to brighten communities while saving water. The vibrant, round exterior was carefully crafted to invite play while hiding an intricate inner working of valves and channels that reduce water consumption by 50% compared to a standard hydrant cap. The bright, spherical design is not only durable, it stands out against the dark, well-worn hydrants of New York. The care taken to craft the four Splash Spot experiences brings fun to NYC and tells children from every walk of life that someone out there is aiming to enrich their lives through design thinking.

Splash Spots are not available for purchase, but we’re currently working with NYC Environmental Protection, NYC Parks Department and FDNY to install them across New York, broadening their scale and impact, while making them free for communities across the city.

For over a century, New Yorkers have been uncapping hydrants to deal with the sweltering temperatures in the summer. This joyful tradition provides some much-needed relief and has become a staple of summer city living. Unfortunately, all that gushing water can lower water pressure for fire fighters and impact equipment at local hospitals. Those issues served as the inspiration for Splash Spots.

For more than 100 years, when the temperature soars in New York City, people turn to neighborhood fire hydrants in search of watery relief. However, the existing hydrant caps that spray water are rudimentary at best, and are often left on unsupervised, flowing into the streets and wasting water. That is how the idea of Splash Spots was born. We created a more whimsical spray cap that conserves 50% more water. Splash Spots pay homage to something uniquely New York by doing something uniquely New York to it: reinventing the spray cap through creativity and ingenuity.

Splash Spots are four distinct hydrant caps that bring four unique water experiences to the five boroughs. Each one is designed to bring whimsy and joy to New York City while conserving 50% more water than a standard spray cap. “Sunshine” spreads rays of water in all directions. “Blossom” releases a cloud of refreshing water droplets. “Jump Rope” creates a whirling “rope” of water for kids to leap over. “Pinwheel” unleashes a stunning spray of three rotating streams. All four Splash Spots create whimsical water experiences that bring communities together and reduce water wastage by 50%.

Splash Spots both enrich public spaces and conserve water. Their precisely calibrated array of valves and channels release 50% less water per minute than a standard hydrant spray cap. Thanks to their multi-directional design, the spray of each device can be directed towards safe play spaces, away from pedestrians and local businesses. To conserve even more water, each Splash Spot has an on/off function that communities can use when they’re done for the day. All made from CNC-machined metal, each Splash Spot is engineered for optimal durability and safety, helping to ensure that communities can use them for years to come.

Splash Spots debuted at a series of NYC children’s programming events this summer, in partnership with Street Lab, an organization that improves the urban environment with neighborhood programming. Ultimately, our goal is to have a Splash Spot on all the 300+ fire hydrants opened by the Fire Department of New York (FDNY) every summer.

To date, Splash Spots has received tremendous attention, being featured in everything from The New York Times to DesignBoom to Fast Company. The campaign earned 161 million impressions with $0 media spend. Most importantly, we’re currently working with NYC Environmental Protection, NYC Parks Department and FDNY to install them across New York, potentially saving over 1,000,000 gallons of water per summer.