Will the San Francisco Arts Commission be Complicit in the Demolition of the Vaillancourt Fountain?

After a bit of linguistic legerdemain the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department (RPD) finally came out and admitted they want to demolish the Vaillancourt Fountain at the Lawrence Halprin-designed Embarcadero Plaza. The plaza and fountain (and neighboring Sue Bierman Park) would be razed to create a new $30-35 million park. Armand Vaillancourt’s fountain, which is owned by the San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC) and among the most famous works in the 96-year-old artist’s career, has been ill-maintained for years, its pumps don’t function, and is currently fenced off. On August 18, 2025, RPD General Manager Phil Ginsburg wrote Chuck Collins, President of the SFAC, and Ralph Remington, Director of Cultural Affairs at the SFAC, urging the commission to deaccession the work claiming that the ultimate “removal” of the fountain is necessary, in part, to “uphold responsible stewardship of civic assets.” Had the city upheld “responsible stewardship” over the lifetime of this civic asset, it wouldn’t be facing demolition. The arts commission bears final responsibility; as they consider this request, should they take the word of RPD?

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As The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) previously reported in "Maintenance Money Down the Drain at Embarcadero Plaza's Vaillancourt Fountain?", RPD claimed the fountain has “historically required extensive, near-daily maintenance,” and that has “averaged approximately $100,000 per year, inclusive of documented labor costs, travel and equipment time, material handling, and additional support activities which reflect tens of thousands of cumulative labor hours.” On August 5, TCLF requested “documentation covering the period from the fountain’s creation in 1971 to the present day to support the claim.” The response TCLF received on August 18, a copy of an email dated May 4, 2025, from RPD Director of Operations, Eric Andersen, does not go back to 1971. Instead, it only covers a five-year period—June 1, 2019, to June 1, 2024—showing total labor costs of $213,341.16. An additional breakdown for the period June 1, 2024, to May 1, 2025, showed total expenditures of $15,185.37. So, in reality, the six-year total is some $228,526.53—far from $100,000 per year—actually it's roughly $38,100 annually. And the “tens of thousands of cumulative labor hours,” only adds up to 1,578 hours – which is 263 hours annually or slightly more than five hours weekly. Remember this is the justification RPD provided in response to TCLF’s inquiry.

The numbers, as they say, don’t add up. So, what accounts for the inaccurate estimated maintenance costs—inflated by more than 250%—and vastly overstated cumulative labor hours? Moreover, does this call into question other data RPD and city officials are using in their aggressive campaign to demolish Embarcadero Plaza and the Vaillancourt Fountain? And is this seemingly errant data being used by RPD in their efforts to convince the SFAC to deaccession the fountain to make way for its demolition?

It's also worth noting that the email of May 4, 2025, does offer this caveat (and another thread worth tugging): “All of this needs to be taken with a grain of salt if we are generating a cost estimate.” Um ... understatement. And it continues: “This doesn't include certain scopes of work that we might need to add, including fountain cleaning, which I believe that Boston Properties was performing, and any work from our custodial and gardening staff” [emphasis added].

Boston Properties, now known as BXP, is “the largest publicly traded developer, owner, and manager of premier workplaces in the United States,” according to its website; significantly, they are the owners of Embarcadero Center, a complex of office towers immediately adjacent to the threatened plaza and fountain. BXP has also offered to raise some $10 million of the money needed for the new park that would replace Embarcadero Plaza and the Vaillancourt Fountain. In fact, the owners of Embarcadero Center have been involved with the fountain’s maintenance in what was then known as H. Justin Herman Plaza since at least 1978, according to the Minutes of December 14, 1978 of what was then known as the Recreation and Park Commission.

Here’s the next thread to pull: What agreement(s) did the owners of Embarcadero Center have with the city to maintain the Vaillancourt Fountain? Was this monitored? If the owners of Embarcadero Center didn’t meet their obligations, how were the terms enforced? And which city agency was responsible for the enforcement? The current state of the fountain would point to inadequate maintenance and if BXP bears some or a lot of that responsibility. If so, have they then created through inadequate maintenance the very problem they seek to “solve” through the demolition of the fountain, a solution the majority costs of which the public would bear?

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The future of the Vaillancourt Fountain is now in the hands of the arts commission. To the extent that maintenance was outsourced, it would appear the work was neither properly done (or done at all) nor monitored. Commission members should carefully scrutinize the data provided by RPD to support deaccessioning, as RPD’s claims don’t always stand up to scrutiny. The commission must also consider the California Art Preservation Act (California Civil Code §987) which states: “the physical alteration or destruction of fine art, which is an expression of the artist’s personality, is detrimental to the artist’ s reputation, and artists therefore have an interest in protecting their works of fine art against any alteration or destruction; and that there is also a public interest in preserving the integrity of cultural and artistic creation.”

The Vaillancourt Fountain did not cause its current condition; that responsibility is shared by the commission itself and the parties to which the maintenance was outsourced: RPD and BXP. If the commission is to “uphold responsible stewardship of civic assets,” it must not absolve itself and excuse RPD and BXP; rather, the fountain should be rehabilitated.

Write the San Francisco Arts Commission and urge them to reject the request by the RPD to deaccession the Vaillancourt Fountain and, instead, call for its rehabilitation. In addition, please cc Mayor Daniel Lurie and Supervisor Danny Sauter, whose district includes Embarcadero Plaza and the Vaillancourt Fountain (NOTE: TCLF is continuing to file records requests).

Chuck Collins, President
San Francisco Arts Commission
401 Van Ness Ave., #325
San Francisco, CA 94102
T: 415-252-2266
E: charles.collins1@sfgov.org  

Ralph Remington, Director of Cultural Affairs
San Francisco Arts Commission
401 Van Ness Ave., #325
San Francisco, CA 94102
T: 415-252-2266
E: art-info@sfgov.org  

Mayor Daniel Lurie
1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place
City Hall, Room 200
San Francisco, CA 94102-4689
T: (415) 554-6153
E: daniel.lurie@sfgov.org

Supervisor Danny Sauter 
1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place
City Hall, Room 244 
San Francisco, CA 94102-4689
T: (415) 554-7450
E: SauterStaff@sfgov.org