“Friends of the Plaza” Files Suit to Prevent Disassembly and Removal of the Historic Vaillancourt Fountain from Embarcadero Plaza
Media Contact: Nord Wennerstrom | T: 202.483.0553 | M: 202.255.7076 | E: nord@tclf.org
February 12, 2026 (San Francisco, CA) – The newly formed coalition called Friends of the Plaza today filed suit in San Francisco Superior Court. The Friends members (listed below) seek enforcement of mandates of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) that protect historic resources including the iconic Embarcadero Plaza on the eastern waterfront of the City of San Francisco, designed more than 50 years ago by renowned landscape architect Lawrence Halprin who was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 2002. The city proposes to completely redesign the plaza and as a first step has approved disassembly and removal of its centerpiece Vaillancourt Fountain, a historic Modernist sculpture widely acknowledged as the most significant work and only public commission in the United States of Canadian sculptor Armand Vaillancourt. CEQA requires a mandatory public environmental review process that identifies impacts, feasible mitigation measures, and alternatives to prevent harm. Rather than conducting a CEQA review the city contends that the fountain disassembly and removal qualify for an "emergency exemption" and that no environmental study or public process is required.
The Friends’ legal action alleges that the city’s action is insupportable.
In November 2025, the San Francisco Arts Commission, which owns the 710-ton fountain, voted to disassemble and put it into storage based on the city Recreation and Park Department contention that it poses an "immediate" hazard to the public. The Friends intend to show that the claim is a pretext to fast-track removal of the fountain from the plaza, manufacturing an emergency out of years of the city’s own deferred maintenance. By committing to the project before completing environmental studies prescribed by CEQA, the city would unlawfully preclude consideration of mitigation measures and alternatives.
The Friends seek enforcement of CEQA to ensure that the plaza’s future is determined through a transparent, equitable, and thoughtful process. Represented by environmental attorney Susan Brandt-Hawley, the Friends—whose members include the Vaillancourt Family, Docomomo US, Docomomo US/Northern California, and The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF)—will first seek a preliminary injunction to prevent the imminent dismantling of the artwork.
The mandate petition filed today alleges that the city claimed a non-existent emergency as a pretext to avoid CEQA review based on the current state of the fountain. “There are in fact no circumstances relating to the condition of the fountain that qualify as emergency.” Rather, the city’s own records expose a timeline of decision-making driven by political deadlines and not public safety. For example, in an April 15, 2025 email, a city project manager wrote to planning staff: “Big picture, if we can and are able to move the fountain... I believe that would avoid an EIR [Environmental Impact Report]." City records further show that by December 2024—nearly a year before the claimed emergency CEQA exemption—staff were already discussing “the best method to dismantle the fountain.”
Statements on the Filing:
The Vaillancourt Family: “On behalf of the Vaillancourt family, we hope this process leads to an outcome that both rehabilitates the Vaillancourt Fountain and affirms its significant cultural legacy in San Francisco and internationally. We believe the City and its residents deserve the opportunity to fully understand all critical aspects of the fountain and to consider the full range of viable alternatives, including thoughtful, contemporary solutions that reintegrate the work into a renewed Embarcadero Plaza. This monumental work, shaped by a powerful history and enduring symbolism, remains profoundly relevant today, and we are confident its artistic and cultural value will continue to deepen with time.”
Charles A. Birnbaum, Founding President & CEO, The Cultural Landscape Foundation:
“Safeguarding the necessary guardrails of the CEQA review process is essential to insuring the protection of acknowledged historic resources like Embarcadero Plaza and the Vaillancourt Fountain, increasing transparency, and supporting authentic public engagement in development decisions."
Liz Watykus, Executive Director, Docomomo US:
“Cities across the country with historic sites like Embarcadero Plaza and the Vaillancourt Fountain face the ongoing threat of demolition by neglect. San Francisco is now attempting to remove a defining work of Modernist landscape architecture by manufacturing a crisis. If this so-called ‘emergency’ is allowed to stand, no historic resource will be safe from politically motivated destruction.”
About Docomomo US
Docomomo US is a national non-profit organization that advocates for the preservation of Modern architecture, landscapes and design. It is led by a national Board of Directors and staff that represents a union of regional chapters. Docomomo US was founded in the United States in 1995 and is a committee of Docomomo International. Docomomo US’ mission is pushing boundaries to preserve modern architecture, landscapes, and design through principled advocacy, collaboration, and celebration. Contact us: info@docomomo-us.org.
About Docomomo US/Northern California
Docomomo US/Northern California (Docomomo NOCA) is a nonprofit membership organization that promotes the study, interpretation, documentation, and protection of the architecture, landscape, and urban design of the Modern Movement in Northern California. Founded in 1996, Docomomo US/Northern California has been operating in the San Francisco Bay Area for 30 years and is one of twenty regional chapters of Docomomo US. Contact information: info@docomomo-noca.org.
About The Cultural Landscape Foundation
The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit founded in 1998 to connect people to places. TCLF educates and engages the public to make our shared landscape heritage more visible, identify its value, and empower its stewards. Through its website, publishing, lectures, and other events, TCLF broadens support and understanding for cultural landscapes. TCLF is also home to the Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize.
Media Contact:
Susan Brandt-Hawley
BRANDT-HAWLEY LAW GROUP
T: 707.938.3900
E: susanbh@me.com
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