"Iconic and unusual" Vaillancourt Fountain set to be dismantled

The San Francisco Arts Commission has voted to dismantle and store a 1970s concrete fountain in San Francisco designed by artist Armand Vaillancourt.

The city of San Francisco's arts agency made the decision to remove the Vaillancourt Fountain following reports that it posed a "an immediate and serious hazard".

Made of twisting, cubic bands of reinforced concrete, the Vaillancourt Fountain is located in a wedge-shaped public plaza designed by Lawrence Halprin, which is set to be redeveloped.

Conservation groups the Cultural Landscape Foundation and Docomomo US became aware of the threat to Vaillancourt Fountain last month, when the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department issued a "surprise announcement" that the fountain had been determined a safety hazard.

Following a flurry of online activity between the organisation, the fountain's caretaking organisation, San Francisco Arts Commission, voted eight to five in a meeting earlier this month to dismantle and store the fountain.

The commission plans to store the fountain for up to three years and it remains unclear what will happen to the structure afterwards.

"It was gut-wrenching yesterday to watch the San Francisco Arts Commission vote 8-5 in favor of dismantling and removing the Vaillancourt Fountain based on an artificially created sense of public threat," said Docomomo US executive director Liz Watkus in a statement following the vote.

According to advocacy organisation The Cultural Landscape Foundation, the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department made its decision that "the fountain poses an immediate and serious hazard" based on letter from the Department of Building Inspection and report from the DCI Engineers in May.

The documents state the fountain displays "corrosion and degradation" and should be vacated until "the hazardous conditions are abated".

However, it did not state the fountain was immediately dangerous, which was part of the contention towards taking the project down, along with the fountain's historical and cultural relevance.

According to reports, the plaza will be converted into a park under developer BXP, although The Cultural Landscape Foundation chief executive Birnbaum noted he's only seen a "schematic diagram" of a large lawn

Birnbaum argues that the fountain could be retained as part of any redevelopment.

"We think the important thing here is it's not an either-or," Birnbaum told Dezeen. "It's possible to revisit the design of this plaza and its work of art without destroying it."

At the time of its installation, the unique fountain was created to drown out the noise of the contentious elevated freeway that backed the site.

According to The Cultural Landscape Foundation chief executive Birnbaum, the fountain's usual nature has draw people to it and made a well-know place of public gathering.

"The thing that has always been intriguing to me about this work of art is it gets a visceral response from everyone," he said. "And isn't that what art should do – shouldn't it provoke us?"

"I think it's sad that the public suffers, the memory of this place will be erased, which is so significant because of its iconic and unusual nature and the symbol that it has represented for so many generations as a place for public gathering, public protest," he continued.

Other recent preservation efforts include a contentious battle around a Frank Lloyd Wright skyscraper and a circular Bertrand Goldberg building in Illinois.

The photography is courtesy of The Cultural Landscape Foundation.

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