If the commission votes to deaccession it, the sculpture will no longer be part of San Francisco’s Civic Art Collection, in which case it would either be destroyed or offered back to the artist who created it, Armand Vaillancourt, or even a private collector. Either party would have to cover the cost of its removal. […]
Initial renderings did not include the fountain, prompting an outcry from preservationists who want the sculpture, opened in 1972, to remain. Those concerns even brought a visit from Vaillancourt, now 95, from his home in Canada to San Francisco in May to argue for its restoration and preservation.
“This survived a 7.1 earthquake with no damage, not a scratch, but they never took care of it,” he told the Chronicle during the June visit. “There’s nothing wrong with it except the dirt.” […]
At a community outreach meeting in July, Project Manager Eoanna Goodwin told the audience that it was impractical to keep the fountain, a statement that moved the artist’s daughter, Oceania Vaillancourt, who lives in San Francisco, to tears.
The letter sent Monday was the written follow-up to that determination. “The current location, scale, and orientation of the fountain fragment the plaza, hinder sightlines, and constrain circulation and event programming,” read the letter. “The scale of the fountain is incompatible with the open lawn and gathering spaces envisioned in the new design.”
The new design, pictured to the right is… a bunch of food trucks.
How novel.
Previously, previously, previously.
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