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San Francisco and the Bay Area News & History

S.F. fountain’s 95-year-old creator returns: ‘I’m ...
Author Last Post
5/22/2025 9:00 PM
I LIKE the Vaillancourt Fountain. It's unique. There is nothing else in the world like it.
San Francisco has MANY different types of architecture which draw visitors from around the world. Why not a Brutalist Fountain that kids and tourist like to visit. When the water is flowing, it's a fun place to visit.

It is a historic place too. U2 and the Vaillancourt Fountain in San Francisco are famously linked due to a surprise, free concert U2 played in front of and on the fountain on November 11, 1987. During the performance, lead singer Bono spray-painted the fountain with the words "Rock 'n' Roll Stops the Traffic," which caused significant controversy besides stopping the traffic on the Embarcadero. This event was captured in the band's documentary film, "Rattle and Hum," and remains a notable moment in San Francisco and U2 history. The event was reported worldwide.

Whenever I had tourists who wanted to visit the sites of San Francisco's World Famous Rock n Roll, Vaillancourt Fountain was one of the places I took them. I'd tell them the story of that day which I vividly remember. In 1987 I was working for Island Records and I was there with Bono, The Edge, Larry, and Adam backstage. It was a day in my 30+ years promoting music that I will never forget. The thousands of people who attended had a great time.

The problem with the site is the Embarcadero Plaza. There is nothing there to draw people on a regular basis. It's a boring plaza. I've heard the city has plans to develop the plaza. Hopefully they will keep the Vaillancourt Fountain and improve the environment it resides in to draw more visitors.

I have a problem with people wanting to get rid of things before they know more about them. That seems to be happening in our country nowadays.

Ken
5/22/2025 2:37 PM

Love architecture critic Allan Temko's famous quip that that likens it to "something deposited by a giant concrete dog with square intestines"..


Greg
5/22/2025 12:44 PM
I don't like it either. In general I don't like the brutalist style.  This monstrosity looks like a chunk of the old, ugly Embarcadero  freeway collapsed.  The young skateboarders enjoy its surroundings. Almost anything would be better than this.  David Stein



Sent from my T-Mobile 4G LTE Device


I don't like it either.  The space definitely needs updating.
It just looks like a construction site.  Apologies to the artist.  
Maybe it would have worked in a different space.  
Alison Merrill
5/22/2025 12:00 PM
I don't like it either.  The space definitely needs updating.
It just looks like a construction site.  Apologies to the artist.  
Maybe it would have worked in a different space.  
Alison Merrill
5/22/2025 11:20 AM
Good Morning SF Guides,

Of course Vaillincourt supports his hideous monstrosity.
He created it.
However,
Many, many, others do not support this eyesore.
For nearly 55 years this monstrosity has been a horrible reminder of a huge mistake in 
SF city planning.
The day that it is removed to landfill will be a day to rejoice.
Attempts to justify its continuing existence at SF’s front door are extremely misguided.
On Van Ness Avenue the 
hideous Jack Tar Hotel finally was removed, 
and hopefully soon this 
so-called fountain, 
this mutation of the equally hideous Embarcadero Freeway 
will be gone.
And the sooner the better.
It will not be missed.

All the best to all,
Bob 



Sent from my iPhone
5/22/2025 5:47 AM

I can't wait to hear what John King has to say about the fountain on our June 12th visit to the Ferry Building, Piers 1,3,and 5, and the Plaza.


By Sam Whiting, ReporterMay 22, 2025 - San Francisco Chronicle


The creator of the giant Vaillancourt Fountain at San Francisco’s Embarcadero Plaza is aware that he may never see it restored to its former glory with water gushing through its white concrete pipes and channels. 


But dry and dingy as it is, the monumental artwork has been there for nearly 55 controversial years, and Armand Vaillancourt says it can last another 55 at least.


That is why Vaillancourt, 95, made the six-hour flight from Montreal to San Francisco this week.


“I’m here to save that piece of art,” he said in a thick Quebecois accent while sitting in the sun Tuesday admiring his work. 


The 40-foot-tall, 710-ton fountain, installed in 1971 next to the Embarcadero Freeway, has survived a legion of critics over the decades who decried its blocky Brutalist aesthetic. It also survived the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, which damaged the freeway beyond repair.


But its supporters, including Vaillancourt, fear it may not survive the pending transformation of the park that surrounds it.


S.F. fountain’s 95-year-old creator returns: ‘I’m here to save that piece of art’


Greg
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