Vaillancourt Vigil

The fountain is fenced off and "closed"
per the green sign (Chron photo)

The future is bleak for San Francisco's 54-year-old Vaillancourt Fountain.

a San Francisco city official said publicly for the first time that the controversial concrete sculpture is not part of the renovation plan for Embarcadero Plaza.

“We did look into keeping the fountain on-site,” Recreation and Park Department Project Manager Eoanna Harrison Goodwin told a decidedly pro-fountain audience, “but once we got the cost estimate, it is beyond our project budget.”

The revelation, while not the final word on the 710-ton sculpture, was perhaps the most discouraging sign yet for its ardent supporters that its days on Embarcadero Plaza may be numbered.

Your humble blogger will be sad to see it go. Although Vaillancourt Fountain is not classically beautiful, watching it when the water is flowing is a unique experience. From 2004:

The Vaillancourt fountain in Justin Herman Plaza is hard to love. After the 1989 earthquake destroyed the freeway off-ramp, the fountain’s complementary big brother, some said it lost its raison d’etre.

Because it was expensive to power the pumps, the water had been turned off since 2000. Vaillancourt fountain became a silent, concrete jumble in the midst of a waterfront that is growing greener and softer.

Depending on the way one is facing, the harsh angles overwhelm the view of the renovated Ferry Building, the nearby park, or the beauteous Bay beyond. The fountain became a grimy sculpture, a favorite resting spot for the ubiquitous pigeons, who further despoiled its surface and walkways. It became such an eyesore that some called for its demolition.

Last month the pumps were turned on, and the area was transformed. The sight and sounds of the rushing water bring life to a dead corner of Justin Herman plaza. Children skip along the walkway beneath the waterfalls, the tourists take their pictures, and the pale tower denizens leave their cubicles to munch on their sandwiches in the sun.