You look at the reservoir and the reservoir looks like a lake but the reservoir is not a lake. A lake is natural. A reservoir is a decision. Someone decided to hold this water here and the holding of this water here is the reservoir. The reservoir is the city's thirst made architectural. The city needs water and the needing water requires storing water and the storing water requires a hole in the ground or a dam across a valley and the hole in the ground or the dam across the valley is the reservoir. The reservoir is patient. The reservoir waits. The reservoir holds the water until the city turns on the faucet and the turning on the faucet is the city drawing from the reservoir without knowing it and the not knowing it is the invisibility of infrastructure.

The Croton Reservoir opened in Manhattan in eighteen forty two and the opening gave New York clean water for the first time and the clean water for the first time meant New York could stop dying of cholera. Before the Croton Reservoir New York drank from wells and the wells were contaminated and the contamination killed people and the killing was the routine and the routine was broken by the reservoir. The Croton Aqueduct carried water forty miles from Westchester to Manhattan and the forty miles was the distance between sickness and health. The receiving reservoir sat on the site where the New York Public Library stands now and the reservoir on the site where the library stands now means the library replaced the water and the water was replaced by books and both the water and the books were what the city needed to survive.

The Hetch Hetchy dam in Yosemite National Park drowned a valley that John Muir called a second Yosemite and the drowning was San Francisco's thirst. Muir fought the dam. The Sierra Club fought the dam. The preservationists fought the dam. San Francisco won because San Francisco needed water and the needing water defeated the beauty and the beauty is still under the water. The Hetch Hetchy reservoir filled in nineteen twenty three and the filling erased a granite valley with waterfalls and meadows and the erasing waterfalls and meadows for drinking water is the choice that every reservoir represents. The reservoir asks how much beauty are you willing to drown for water and the answer is always as much as it takes because water wins. Water always wins. The city's thirst is more powerful than the valley's beauty.

In South Africa the Cape Town water crisis of twenty eighteen brought the city to Day Zero and Day Zero was the day the reservoirs would be empty and the reservoirs being empty meant the taps would be turned off and the taps being turned off meant four million people would have no water. Cape Town rationed. Cape Town queued. Cape Town learned what a city looks like when the reservoir fails and the reservoir failing looks like fear. The reservoir is the promise that there will be water tomorrow and the promise that there will be water tomorrow is the foundation of civilization and the foundation of civilization in Cape Town almost cracked. Day Zero did not arrive. The rains came. The reservoir filled. The promise was kept by the weather and the weather keeping the promise is the fragility that no city wants to think about.

You jog around the reservoir in the park and the jogging around the reservoir is the recreation and the recreation built on top of the infrastructure and the infrastructure holds a billion gallons. The joggers circle the reservoir. The dogs walk near the reservoir. The benches face the reservoir. The reservoir in the park is the prettiest piece of plumbing in any city because the reservoir does not look like plumbing. The reservoir looks like nature. The reservoir looks like a lake. But the reservoir is not a lake. The reservoir is a machine. The machine holds water. The machine feeds pipes. The pipes feed faucets. The faucets feed you. You jog around the machine and the jogging around the machine is the luxury of not thinking about water and the not thinking about water is the reservoir working. The reservoir is always working. Holding. Waiting. Keeping its promise.