United Nations Plaza Fountain Introduction

Lawrence Halprin (1916-2009) was a legendary creative figure who lived and worked in the Bay Area. He was first and foremost a landscape architect, however, he also employed his talents in the fields of city planning, the visual arts and filmmaking.

United Nations Plaza Fountain, photographed by Charles A. Birnbaum, 2005 (source: The Cultural Landscape Foundation)

 
Halprin's United Nations Plaza Fountain was dedicated on June 26, 1977, the 32nd anniversary of the United Nations.  Located 600 feet from the Main Library, the fountain is marked off by longitudinal and latitudinal bands on the plaza's surface.

United Nations Plaza, Google Satellite View

The fountain takes up a footprint of 80 by 130 feet within the 2.6 acre United Nations Plaza. It consists of approximately 100 wire sawn pieces of Sierra white granite mined at the Raymond quarry near Fresno, granite symbolizing strength. This is the same granite used for City Hall and other civic buildings. These pieces were cut into varying shapes and range in width from 6 inches to four feet. The entire work weighs 3,300,000 pounds and is arranged into seven clusters that represent the seven continents.

Georgia Lindsay noted that with his fountains, Halprin aim to "represent" nature rather than "recreate" it. According to James Haas:

Halprin has developed an affection for Sierra Nevada views of water coursing through huge granite rocks, and he tried to bring that effect to his fountain by placing gigantic stacks of granite slabs around its outer edge up to twenty feet tall and smaller chunks of granite in the center, over which shot several spouts of water that eventually collected in pools.

The United Nations Plaza fountain has been alternately described as "smart" or "brainy." That was owing to a computer system that controlled water flow. It was to draw water from an underground creek below the plaza. The computer would be connected to gauges that would measure wind velocity in order to lower the flow when the weather was windy, lessening the spray that might soak passersby. The computer also would regulate the depth of water in the fountain's pools to vary from being dry to an accumulation of eight feet of water according to the time of day.

These computer controls apparently never worked for long, if at all.

From the moment it was proposed up through the present, Lawrence Halprin's United Nations Plaza Fountain has never ceased to be a source of controversy. Later blog entries will look at the fountain's troubled history.

Later entries:

"United Nations Plaza Fountain: A Troubled Birth" (August 1, 2023)

"United Nations Plaza Fountain: A Troubled Life" (August 17, 2023)

Bibliography

Adams, Gerald, "Another City Fountain Dispute Is Bubbling Up," San Francisco Examiner February 6, 1979.

Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon: Die bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker. Volume 68 (K.G. Saur, 2011).

Brown, Mary, San FranciscoModern Architecture and Landscape Design 1935-1970: Historic Context Statement. (San Francisco City and County Planning Department, 2011).

Cindy, "UN Plaza Fountain," Art and Architecture of San Francisco [blog] March 7, 2001.

Haas, James W., The San Francisco Civic Center: A History of the Design, Controversies, and Realization of A City Beautiful Masterpiece (University of Nevada Press, 2019).

Katz, Bernard S., Fountains of San Francisco (Lexikos/Don't Call It Frisco Press, 1989).

"Latest Plan to Revamp San Francisco’s U.N. Plaza Unveiled," The Cultural Landscape Foundation March 14, 2019

Lindsay, Georgia, Bricks, Branding, And the Everyday: Defining Greatness at the United Nations Plaza in San Francisco, Archnet-IJAR: International Journal of Architectural Research (July 2017).

Pacheco, Anthony, "Another Halprin-designed plaza could be on the chopping block, this time in San Francisco," The Architects Newspaper May 30, 2018.

Stack, Peter, "A Brainy Fountain Is Dedicated," San Francisco Chronicle April 26, 1977.

Make Music Day June 21, 2023

Last year for Make Music Day 2022, the San Francisco Public Library featured a trio of San Francisco Symphony musicians -- cellist Amos Yang, bassist Charles Chandler, and violist Katie Kadarauch. 

This coming Wednesday we are happy to welcome back 2Low - the duet of Amos Yang and Charles Chandler, performing from 4 to 5 PM in the Main Library's atrium. 

Earlier in the day, from 12 noon to 1 PM, check out Purple Glaze, the house band of the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, at Larkin Street steps near the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library weekly book sale.

Make Music Day was an initiative of the French Ministry of Culture that began in 1981. Known as Fête de la musique (Music Festival or Music Celebration) it is also a happy homonym of Faites de la musique (Making Music).

Make Music Day is currently celebrated in 120 countries and takes place annually on the Summer Solstice (June 21). Musicians everywhere, amateur and professional alike, are urged to play music outside or in public spaces and parks.  The only stipulation is that all concerts must be free to the public, performers donate their time free of charge.

You can find a complete listing of performances at the Make Music Day San Francisco website.

Local Talent at the San Francisco Opera: Amerigo Frediani

Amerigo Frediani (image source: San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection)

Amerigo Frediani was another local artist who performed many smaller roles during the San Francisco Opera's early years. Born on January 2, 1898 in Lucca, Italy, his family emigrated to the United States in 1907 and settled in Sonoma County. He graduated from Healdsburg High School in 1914 and UC Berkeley in 1918. He also became a naturalized American citizen that year. 

In 1918 and 1919, during World War I, he served as a private in the 144th Machine Gun Battalion. After the war he went to work as a bank clerk, first in Berkeley and later in San Francisco. He showed a passion for opera and song performing frequently in recitals and operas in the Bay Area. Frediani starred as the “lyrical tenor” André Ferrier’s Gaîté Française theater from 1922 to 1924.

image source: San Francisco Opera Programs, Season 1925

He performed frequently with the Opera in its first seasons as a chorus member and in small credited roles in Puccini's Gianni Schicchi (1923, 1924), Il Tabarro (1923), Gounod's Roméo et Juliette (1923), Vittadini's Anima Allegra (1925), Massenet's Manon (1925, 1934), Saint-Saëns' Samson and Dalila (1925, 1926), Puccini's Manon Lescaut (1926), Giordano's Fedora (1928), Montemezzi's L'Amore dei Tre Re (1928), Verdi's La Traviata (1933, 1934), Rimsky-Korsakov's Le Coq d'Or (1933), Leoncavallo's Pagliacci (1933), Puccini's La Rondine (1934), Delibes' Lakmé (1934), and Verdi's Otello (1934).

At this time he also sang with the newly formed Los Angeles Grand Opera Association. In 1927 Frediani received a scholarship to study with Giulio Silva at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He continued to participate in recitals and frequently performed live on Bay Area radio stations KPO (today’s KNBR) and KLX (today’s KNEW). From 1928 to 1933 he moved to New York where he studied with Claude Wanford and was coached by Antonio dell'Orefice. Little is known of his performance activity there except occasional listings in the New York Times of his performing as a soloist on WGBS (today's WINS). 

Amerigo Frediani (source: San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection)

He was known more for his musicality than for an excellent voice. A notice in the San Francisco Chronicle in 1927 described:

Frediani sings always with intelligent style. His diction is clear in English, French, Spanish and Italian, and there is a nice lyric flow to his readings. His voice is not broad of range or luscious in quality--the tone is inclined to be pallid and husky--but he handles it with musical finesse.

Alfred Metzger praised his voice for “its quality rather than its quantity.” A 1933 San Francisco Chronicle article remarked that: "Although his voice is not a lustrous virtuoso instrument, it is capable of fine expression. Frediani has sensibility and intelligence."

When he returned to San Francisco he returned to the radio, singing on KTAB (today's KSFO). He was recitalist and sang at local Bastille Day celebrations. In the late 1930s he also sang in concerts given by the Federal Music Project. By 1940, Frediani had moved to Los Angeles where he worked as a sales representative for a perfume company. Toward the end of his life he returned to the Bay Area and died on December 25, 1982 in Sonoma County.

Bibliography

"Amerigo Frediani," Music West December 1927.

"Amerigo Frediani is Scholarship Winner," San Francisco Chronicle November 13, 1927.

Bishop, Cardell. The Los Angeles Grand Opera Association, 1924-1934: A Short Career in A Big City ([Author], 1979].

"Chamber Opera Singers Start Season with Verdi's 'Falstaff'," San Francisco Chronicle September 22, 1933.

"Four Concerts Slated by Music Project," Oakland Tribune March 13, 1938.

“Four Features on KPO Today,” San Francisco Chronicle November 12, 1925.

"Frediani Appears in Program in New York," San Francisco Chronicle January 26, 1929.

"Frediani Gives Recital Here," San Francisco Chronicle October 25, 1933.

"Frediani to Give Recital in October," San Francisco Chronicle September 23, 1928.

"Frediani Returns Will Sing Soon," San Francisco Chronicle May 14, 1933.

"Frediani, S.F. Tenor, Encored," San Francisco Chronicle October 27, 1927.

“Frediani to Sing during Celebration,” San Francisco Chronicle July 10, 1927.

“French Comedy to Be Presented Here,” San Francisco Examiner November 17, 1922.

“La Gaite Francaise Enjoys Success,” Pacific Coast Musical Review January 21, 1922.

Metzger, Alfred, “Toti Dal Monte Creates Sensation in Title Role of ‘Lucia di Lammermoor’,” San Francisco Chronicle January 13, 1926.

Metzger, Alfred, "Amerigo Frediani Scores Again in Annual Concert," San Francisco Chronicle April 2, 1938.

“One Act Comic Opera at Theatre Gaite-Francaise,” San Francisco Chronicle November 14, 1926.

"Personal Notes," The California Alumni Fortnightly September 20, 1919.

"Personal Notes," The California Alumni Fortnightly June 5, 1920.

San Francisco Grand Opera. (Schwabacher-Frey Stationery Co., 1925-1927.

"Young Musicians in Evening Musicale," Berkeley Daily Gazette November 24, 1919.