A huge concrete fountain that U2 frontman Bono famously graffitied during a free concert at San Francisco’s Embarcadero Plaza in 1987 has been drained after “a major mechanical failure” forced the city to shut the water off.
The last pump that serviced the Vaillancourt Fountain, also known as “Quebec libre!,” failed about two weeks ago, Tamara Aparton, a Recreation and Parks Department spokesperson, told The Standard. Now, the 53-year-old brutalist sculpture must have its mechanical and electrical systems replaced. The cost? Upward of $3 million.
“The fountain systems were extremely antiquated and past the end of their useful life,” Aparton said in an email. “Due to [the] age of the infrastructure, the fountain systems require a full renovation.”
It’s unclear if or when those repairs could happen. Aparton said there was “no timeline.” For now, the department is working with the Arts Commission to install temporary container plants in the fountain.
Coma Te, communications director for the commission, told The Standard the agency is working closely with Recreation and Parks to repair the fountain and “get it running as soon as possible.”
But with a looming $800 million budget deficit, those planters may not be all that temporary.
Mayor London Breed’s office did not immediately respond to The Standard’s questions about whether the city can afford to fix the fountain.
According to The Standard’s AI bot, which we trained to understand the mayor’s proposed $16 billion budget for fiscal years 2025 and 2026, the 362-page document unsurprisingly makes no mention of the fountain. However, the budget does allocate $15 million for capital improvements and maintenance of public spaces.
The mayor has proposed a budget of $255.9 million for Recreation and Parks for the 2025 fiscal year—a decrease of $7.2 million or 2.7% from the current budget—according to The Standard’s AI bot, which analyzes budget documents. The Arts Commission also has money for the maintenance and conservation of public art installations, the bot notes.
Aparton said she could not provide the cost of operating the fountain, which pumps up to 30,000 gallons of water per minute. In 2004, the department said it cost $200,000 a year to keep the water running.
Decried by some and adored by others, the fountain has long been controversial—or perhaps misunderstood. Designed by Canadian artist Armand Vaillancourt in 1971 and installed that same year, the sculpture was conceived with the now-demolished Embarcadero Freeway in mind and built so that people could interact with it.
But when the freeway was demolished in 1991, some called for the fountain to be torn down with it. Supervisor Aaron Peskin renewed those calls in 2004 after the water had been shut off for several years due to the state’s energy crisis.
The fountain went dry again 10 years later because of the drought. It cost the city $500,000 to turn the water back on in 2017, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
“It’s an iconic piece of public artwork here in the city, so you know everybody has their opinions about it,” Te said. “But it’s part of San Francisco’s Embarcadero waterfront environment. We definitely want to do what we can to ensure that it is repaired as quickly as possible.”
Perhaps Bono, with an estimated net worth in the high hundreds of millions of dollars, could be the fountain’s savior. We emailed his management firm to find out, but we’re still waiting for a reply.