Hydrology and Hydraulics - Sometimes Surreal


Bentley users who have visited the Haestad Methods Solution Center in Watertown, CT for training are surely impressed by the extensive collection of commissioned Robert Tinney artwork that adorns the walls of the office. We have over 20 original framed paintings that, for well over a decade, decorated Haestad Methods' direct mail pieces, web pages and user documentation.


Anyone who participated in the PC revolution during the 1980's must recall the brilliant and colorful Byte Magazine covers that, each month, trumpeted the latest technology milestone. Robert Tinney was the cover illustrator during these years. Tinney was thoroughly steeped into our technology heritage, and we thought it would be interesting to discover what this artist might accomplish when challenged to artistically render the science of hydrology and hydraulics. So, Haestad Methods commissioned our first Robert Tinney commercial cover art in 1990.


The result, reproduced below simply blew us away. I think it must have a left an indelible impression on the many thousands of engineers who received that first multi-page catalog back in 1990, a time when Haestad Methods was still selling many batch-driven programs (such as THYSYS from TXDOT and TR-20 from SCS).

This thumb-nail does not do the original justice. All our original brushed paintings are 16 inch by 20 inch and we drum-scanned them for publishing our full-color brochures. The original TIFFS are of massive size and these pixel reductions (using Easy Thumbnails) unavoidably sacrifices some detail and color fidelity.

Below, is my personal favorite that develops Tinney's "water-cube" notion further to conceptualize bridge and floodplain hydraulic back-water as modeled using HECPack. The balloon is a subtle salute to one of the object oriented programming languages that was being used at Haestad in those days. Perhaps someone will post a response to this blog, if they can guess the programming language and vendor (no longer in business).

This next one was featured on the cover of the PondPack user manual. I include it as a tribute to Mike Glazner, who in those days was referred to as "Mr. Pond Pack" (PondPack was branded as two words back then). Mike is currently Bentley's Marketing Director for Bentley Institute; an appropriate posting given the fact that Mike personally taught 1000's of engineers how to design stormwater management ponds. Mike also had the good-fortune of working with Robert Tinney to cycle concepts and develop each piece.

And finally, here is a Tinney work inspired by yet another Bentley flag-ship product, WaterCAD. This, I think, is one of his more detailed works. This concept of potable water hovering above the consumers is exemplary of the depth and range of Robert Tinney's imagination.

Whether or not you were a Haestad user during the 15 year period that we marketed around Tinney talent, I hope you can appreciate these surrealistic expressions of our water and wastewater vocation. I have access to all the full-size digital images, so if you would like to see more, let me know. Perhaps someone, equally nostalgic, would like to see something in particular. Just let me know.

I may even post some of the Santa Claus impressions that Haestad Methods used to send out during the annual holiday season.

Please enjoy and look for more Robert Tinney's in the this community's file/gallery area.

Jack