A 15-month-long controversy over the possible removal of the brutalist Vaillancourt Fountain is over, as the SF Arts Commission just voted 8-5 to take it down, though they say it will be put into storage and it could possibly be rebuilt.

It created some waves in July 2024 when SF city officials presented a proposed redesign for the Embarcadero Plaza and Sue Bierman Park, and that design did not include the Vaillancourt Fountain that’s been there since 1971. Fans of the striking and some would say appallingly ugly fountain mounted a campaign to preserve it, even bringing in the fountain’s designer, 96-year-old French-Canadian artist Armand Vaillancourt.

Their appeals hit a wall when Rec and Parks fenced the fountain off to the public in June of this year, calling it “hazardous,” and saying, “the structure is cracked, corroded and missing key supports.” (The water in the fountain hasn’t been running in years.) A month later, Rec and Parks officials said that renovating the fountain would cost way too much, with the cost of renovating the fountain at $29 million, while the overall park renovation was working on a $30 million budget.

Rec and Parks formally requested the fountain’s removal this past August, making the request to the SF Arts Commission that has final say on public art in San Francisco. Then last week, Rec and Parks really pushed the issue by saying they would pay for the statue’s removal and storage if the Arts Commission would just hurry up and vote to remove the damned thing.

On Monday, Rec and Parks got their way. Late Monday afternoon, the SF Arts Commission voted to remove Vaillancourt Fountain, in an 8-5 vote that packed City Hall with both supporters and detractors of the fountain.

“It is not about artistic merit. It is not about the importance of the work, because it is very important,” commissioner Janine Shiota said before the vote. “I love this space. I saw U2 at this space.”

But she and most of the other commissioners voted to have the fountain removed, because of its poor condition, litany of safety hazards, and how Rec and Parks said there was some new “additional documentation" showing the structure was an unsafe variable at the frequently trafficked plaza.

“Today, the 710-ton fountain contains deteriorated concrete, corroded structural steel, and hazardous materials, and its mechanical and electrical systems are beyond repair,” Rec and Parks project manager Eoanna Goodwin told the commission. “Rec and Park has taken initial steps to prohibit access, such as installing fencing, mesh screens, and safety signage.”

“Despite these protective measures, the fencing and mesh screens have been repeatedly breached, and individuals continue to enter the fenced-off area and even sleep within the concrete tubes.”

Goodwin added that one of those cantilever concrete tubes is now leaning on other tubes, and is bearing weight on other tubes in a way these were not designed for. Plus, she said, the fountain’s underground pump room “is routinely flooded and unsafe for maintenance staff.”

And several public commenters agreed this thing was just no longer safe, even if not aesthetically pleasing. “This is a public plaza. It’s partitioned off, but someone could easily climb over the fence,” former Planning Commissioner Joel Koppel said. “I just don’t think it's safe [for the fountain] to stay there.”

A rep from Supervisor Danny Sauter’s office also popped in to note that “the vast majority favor moving forward with the reimagining of this area.” And by "reimagining," they meant “getting rid of the fountain."

But that feeling was not unanimous, not even on the Arts Commission.

“As an arts commissioner, I just don’t want to put an art piece on the path to deaccession,” (that is, destroying it or selling it off for parts) commissioner Patrick Carney said before voting against the fountain’s removal.

Armand Vaillancourt’s granddaughter even showed up at the commission meeting. “It’s a vital piece of public art,” Chanel Vaillancourt said to the commission. “The fountain has served as an outlet for civic demonstration and anti-war activism for many, many generations.”

Commenter Matt Joseph called the fountain’s removal “politically motivated,” and alleged that “the removal has been premeditated, this is an artificial public threat, designed to bypass CEQA and advance a larger renovation project. For over a year, the project team appears to have pre-committed to a design without the fountain, and is now doing post hoc rationalization.”

Despite the vote to remove Vaillancourt Fountain, the fountain will not be demolished or destroyed. It will be taken down, its pieces put into storage, and assessed for repair and possible reconstruction. Rec and Parks says they will determine how deteriorated the structure really is, and consider possible repair, repurposing, or maybe even relocation of the fountain.

There is a required 90-day notice for the removal, and then an estimated two-month disassembly process. Then it goes into storage for “up to three years” according to Rec and Parks, who say that this could all end in “potential reassembly.” This would also create a time period for any interested arts organizations to raise funds for restoration, repair, or even ultimately relocation of the fountain.

But the fountain’s supporters may be absolutely correct in that once it’s taken down and in storage, that may be the last we ever see of Vaillancourt Fountain.

Related: SF Rec & Parks Appears to Make End Run to Get Rid of Vaillancourt Fountain In a Hurry [SFist]

Image: 9yz via Wikimedia Commons