The San Francisco Arts Commission has approved the controversial removal of the iconic Vaillancourt Fountain from Embarcadero Plaza, marking the end of a heated public debate over the fate of the beloved Brutalist sculpture. In an 8-5 vote on November 3, commissioners authorized the dismantling of artist Armand Vaillancourt's concrete masterpiece, which will be disassembled and placed in storage for up to three years. According to The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF), the fountain's future remains uncertain beyond 2028.
The decision came just days after the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department (RPD) declared on October 31 that the Vaillancourt Fountain "presents an immediate and serious hazard" and must be dismantled for public safety reasons. RPD officials announced plans to install tall fencing around the fountain as early as the following week, with removal operations expected to begin within 90 days and last approximately two months. The site will be transformed through a public-private partnership between the city of San Francisco and real estate development firm BXP, which plans to create a new $32 million park.
The fountain, constructed from precast concrete square tubes, was installed in 1971 as the centerpiece of Lawrence Halprin's designed public plaza. The sculpture has faced ongoing challenges since a 1989 earthquake caused significant infrastructure damage, prompting initial calls for its removal. By 2004, city officials had turned off the fountain's water supply, and since June of this year, the entire structure has been cordoned off with fencing.
The removal process gained momentum when the San Francisco Planning Department issued RPD a letter exempting the fountain from California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) regulations. This exemption allowed the relocation to proceed under the justification of eliminating an immediate public threat, despite the fountain's recognized historical and artistic significance.
Conservation groups and community advocates mounted fierce opposition to the removal decision. DOCOMOMO, an organization dedicated to preserving modern architecture, criticized the proceedings as "an unprecedented interpretation of the California Art Preservation Act (CAPA) and an unheard of application of a CEQA emergency project." In a public statement, DOCOMOMO expressed gratitude to community members participating in the public art discussion while noting their disappointment that project sponsors "immediately celebrated the decision to remove public art, in stark contrast to the somber tone of the Commission."
Charles A. Birnbaum, president and CEO of The Cultural Landscape Foundation, issued a scathing critique of the Arts Commission's decision. "The Arts Commission was entrusted with the care of 96-year-old Armand Vaillancourt's widely acknowledged greatest work, his only public commission in the United States," Birnbaum stated. He emphasized that the fountain was recently determined by San Francisco Planning to be eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places, making the removal decision even more controversial.
Birnbaum further accused the commission of deliberate neglect, stating that "for years the commission deliberately decided not to properly maintain the artwork and now they've voted to pardon and absolve themselves, and by extension the Recreation and Park Department, for their poor stewardship decisions." He characterized the removal as part of "a broad and dangerous national trend" threatening public art preservation.
The battle to save the fountain involved multiple stakeholders, including TCLF, DOCOMOMO, local community members, and even members of Vaillancourt's own family. Despite their efforts, the combination of safety concerns, bureaucratic maneuvering, and development pressures ultimately prevailed, sealing the fate of one of San Francisco's most distinctive and polarizing public artworks.
