The fugly but beloved-to-some Vaillancourt Fountain at Embarcadero Plaza was already on the ropes and uncertain to be kept around, but now the city is fencing it off, as a new architectural report says it's a hazard to the public.

Embarcadero Plaza’s 54-year-old Vaillancourt Fountain already appeared to be on thin ice, after a proposed $30 million renovation of the plaza released last summer did not include the fountain. There was no formal announcement that the some-would-say-appallingly-ugly fountain would be removed, but the fountain was not included in the recent renderings for that redesign, and this has set off some pushback — both from lovers of Brutalist design and from the artist Armand Vaillancourt himself to preserve the fountain.

There’s a new development today that does not bode well for the fountain’s survival. The Chronicle reports that the Vaillancourt Fountain is being fenced off to keep people away, as the city has declared the structure “hazardous.” Per the Chronicle, the installation on the fences was scheduled to start at 7 am Monday morning, and will continue through the week.

The Chronicle obtained the rendering seen above of what the fences will look like, and these are not the huge restrictive fences that were put up 24th Street BART station back when the vending there was out of control. The Chron describes this as “steel mesh security fencing,” which is about 3.5 feet tall, and does not really limit access to the perimeter of the fountain but discourages skateboarding on the fountain's dry pool bed.

Having now gated the thing off, there is clearly an emerging rationale from the city to tear the thing down.

“The fountain isn’t just falling apart — it’s hazardous,” Rec and Parks spokesperson Tamara Aparton told the Chronicle. “The structure is cracked, corroded and missing key supports. Add lead and asbestos to the mix, and it’s a serious safety risk. That’s why we’re fencing it off now, to protect the public while longer term decisions are made.”

“The bottom line is that the fountain is no longer safe to approach or interact with,” she added.

This conclusion comes from a 122-page report from the architectural firm Page & Turnbull on the fountain’s deterioration. Water has not been flowing at the fountain for about a year now, after a pump failure last summer. That report also found that the structure no longer meets seismic safety codes.

The fountain’s designer, 95-year-old Armand Vaillancourt, visited SF last month in hopes of saving it, and claimed it would be cheaper to restore the fountain than to tear it down. But that is not the consensus opinion, as Rec and Parks estimates that restoring the fountain (tearing it down and putting it back together) would cost somewhere between $12 million and $17 million, plus annual maintenance fees of $100,000 each year.

Vaillancourt also claimed that since the structure survived the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, it is therefore proven earthquake-safe. But the Page & Turnbull report does not agree, saying “The structure is likely to yield and deform beyond that deformation already apparent in some of the stress cracking in the concrete.”

That report does not declare that the fountain needs to be torn down. “The fountain does not appear yet to have deteriorated beyond repair,” the assessment says. “Though certain systems and components have, and there may be a variety of approaches to treatment to be explored in future phases that could stabilize and restore it.”  

The decision on whether to keep or remove the fountain will ultimately be made by the SF Arts Commission. That body’s spokesperson commented to the Chronicle, but in vague terms that did not broach the topic of whether the fountain would stay or go.

“The bottom line is that the fountain is no longer safe to approach or interact with," Arts Commission director of communications Coma Te said to the Chron. “The Arts Commission supports Rec and Park’s decision to secure the area as they work to complete planning and design work for the plaza.”

That said, this is not good news for fans of Vaillancourt Fountain. And the fact that the fountain now needs to be fenced off, however slight that fencing is, is certainly ammunition for anyone who wants to see the thing torn down.

Related: 95-Year-Old Artist Behind Often Reviled Embarcadero Plaza Fountain Flies to SF to 'Save' It [SFist]

Image: Another Believer via Wikimedia Commons