The San Francisco Arts Fee board of administrators has voted to dismantle a controversial concrete fountain by Armand Vaillancourt at Embarcadero Plaza.
On Monday, November 3, the board voted eight to 5 to take away the brutalist Vaillancourt Fountain to make means for the plaza’s redevelopment.
The recreation and parks division reportedly plans to spend about $4.4 million to rent a disassembly guide to take aside the fountain and retailer the items for 3 years. The division has mentioned that the fountain had beforehand fallen into disrepair and was a thought of a security hazard—two arguments which have been met with skepticism from critics.
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On Sunday, November 2, the nonprofit Cultural Panorama Basis, which has been preventing to protect the monument, disputed the alledged instant security threat.
“For years, the [Arts] Fee intentionally determined to not correctly preserve the paintings and now they’ve voted to pardon and absolve themselves, and by extension the Recreation and Parks Division, for his or her poor stewardship choices,” Cultural Panorama Basis president Charles Birnbaum mentioned in a statement.
Tamara xd, the spokesperson for San Francisco’s recreation and parks division, advised the San Francisco Standard: “Individuals are repeatedly breaching the fence, reducing by means of the mesh, and climbing into and within the 10-ton corroded arms to commit vandalism, and even to sleep contained in the fountain’s construction, which unbiased engineers and [the Department of Building Inspection] have confirmed are susceptible to collapse.”
Aparton added that “mixed with asbestos and lead hazards, it’s tougher to think about a clearer public security subject.”
The removing of the fountain and redevelopment of the plaza have been an ongoing source of controversy, with The Art Newspaper beforehand reporting that metropolis officers had allegedly mentioned redeveloping the plaza roughly a decade earlier than these plans had been made public in 2024. The plans didn’t appear to incorporate the plaza or public art asset, which town has a obligation to take care of. Metropolis officers have mentioned, nonetheless, that that is merely not true.
