The hulking concrete structure, built in 1971 in the shadow of the towering Embarcadero Freeway, has long been controversial; since its debut, some residents have deemed it an eyesore, while skaters consider it a landmark of their sport’s history in San Francisco. And historians say it’s long been a destination for civic engagement and an emblem of modernist architecture.
“It’s such a good place for gathering — for protests, for shows,” said Pretty Sims, whose punk band False Flag held a performance in front of the fountain, partly in protest of the removal last week. “U2 has played there. There’s been so many protests that have happened in Embarcadero Plaza.”
Advocates have been fighting to keep the fountain in place since 2024, when the city first unveiled plans to redevelop the Embarcadero Plaza as a waterfront park — without the structure. Tensions escalated last year, though, after the Recreation and Parks Department was granted an emergency exemption to the California Environmental Quality Act, easing its path to remove the historic fountain without the long and often cumbersome community engagement process usually required.
In October, the Recreation and Park Department sought an emergency exception to the CEQA process after an engineering firm it contracted to assess the fountain found widespread corrosion of the structural steel and concrete, creating a risk of collapse, especially during seismic activity.
Based on the report, the fountain was deemed an imminent safety risk and slated for emergency removal. In November, that plan was approved by the city’s Arts Commission, which oversees the fountain as part of the city’s Civic Art Collection.
Modernist conservation nonprofit Docomomo International appealed to the Board of Supervisors to halt the removal and require a full environmental review in January, alleging that city officials invoked the emergency exception to skirt the CEQA process as they prepared for the major transformation of Embarcadero Plaza. After supervisors denied the appeal and backed the plan to disassemble the fountain, advocates escalated to a legal complaint.
Wednesday’s ruling gives the city permission to begin disassembling the structure, despite a court hearing set for August on the Friends of the Plaza’s plea for a CEQA review.
That disassembly could begin anytime — Rec and Parks previously said it expected to begin removal as soon as March. Kwart said she wasn’t aware of a set timeline for removal, but noted that “there is nothing legal preventing the city from moving forward.”
