United Nations Plaza Fountain - A Troubled Life

 

source: "Question Man - What is a San Francisco Eyesore?" San Francisco Chronicle January 14, 1980

The fountain at the United Nations plaza is cement. Tons of cement are not pretty. (Jannette Anderson, 1980).

Construction of the fountain had not yet begun when United Nations Plaza was dedicated in June 1975, the 30th anniversary of the United Nations Charter Conference in San Francisco.  The fountain itself was dedicated on April 25, 1977, but it was a dry event -- water was not scheduled to flow until July.  Newspaper articles through 1978 noted the continued malfunctioning of the valves that controlled the water spray.

The only time the United Nations Plaza fountain appears to have been fully functional was in early 1979.  It provided a very different experience than we get today.

image source: San Francisco Examiner February 6, 1979

A 1979 photo shows a gush of water like we never see today. A San Francisco Examiner article accompanying accompanying the photo provides an explanation of the fountain's operation from Don Carter, who along with Angela Danadjieva was principal-charge of the project for the Halprin firm.    

He explained that the fountain alternated between periods of calm, periods of jacuzzi-like waves and a climax he called the "jets cycle" when it erupted like a 25 foot high geyser.  When the weather was too windy, these water intensive events would be shut down by automatic computer control. One of the geyser events was coordinated with curtain times at the adjoining Orpheum Theater. During some of the "low tide" periods the water level dropped 30 inches from the peak water level and allowed people to walk inside the dried out structure. Carter expressed a hope that children would wade in the fountain on warm days.

While some observers were delighted by the variety and periodicity of the fountain's activity, others were puzzled by it.  According to one denizen of the plaza: "When the spray isn't working, people think its broken. The sprays only operate three times a day."  Given the common windy conditions in the plaza, it likely operated less than that.  The equipment that created these effects fell into disrepair in the early 1980s, eliminating the "earth-tides" symbolism that formed a significant part of Halprin's vision.

The San Francisco Chronicle's famed architecture writer Allan Temko was no fan of the fountain. He called it a "pomposity of ... madly assembled granite." He also lamented that "for the $2 million this fountain cost we could have bought four or five Henry Moores, to name a sculptor who might have dome justice to the grand entry to the Civic Center."

It was not long before the fountain became a casualty of the neighborhood's street life.  In mid-1979, Kevin Starr, San Francisco City Librarian from 1973 to 1976 and later a San Francisco Examiner columnist, wrote an erudite put-down of the fountain entitled a "$1.5 Million Pig Pen" He wrote scathingly of the crowd surrounding it.

The noise (every other word referred to an act of incest) came from a dozen or so men holding confabulation on the corner near the fountain. They were drinking from bottles and cans wrapped in brown paper bags, and they were shouting to each other in cacophonous discourse.

Garbage and filth surround the fountain. I stepped gingerly around wads of gum, cigarette butts, vomit, a half-eaten fly-infested turkey drumstick, flattened beer cans and empty bottles. I noted three empty bottles of Thunderbird, two empty bottles of Franzia Brothers white port and one bottle of Night Train Express pear wine.

Great granite blocks rise in a certain sculptured disorderliness that is actually a pyramidal order. From various points water rushes down the granite to a pool below, putting the fountain into dramatic motion. The flow of water came up against a barrier of refuse, however, where it was supposed to flow most dramatically out of sight--a dam of beer cans, wet paper and broken glass, and a horrible primeval compost ooze composed of God-knows-what.

The UN fountain is not even a year old, but already heavy graffiti mars many of its noble facades. The stones facing Leavenworth Street are the most heavily defaced with scores of insipid or obscene scratchings.

Starr held no objection to the fountain itself, but to the fountain within its societal environment. He lamented that the "very symbolic center of our city, the UN Plaza at Civic Center, is a miasma of filth and defacement." When Janette Anderson, at the top of this entry, identified the fountain as a "public eyesore" and misidentified it as being constructed from ugly cement, her opinion was probably formed as someone who did not want to hang around to appreciate it.

The ensuing years brought small adjustment to the plaza -- the removal of benches, engraving in the sidewalks commemorating the 40th anniversary of the United Nation's founding.  But the fountain remained an issue.  When it wasn't fenced off it attracted homeless bathers and drug users.  Chronicle writer Ilene Lelchuk reported that "The spraying fountain in San Francisco's United Nations Plaza is used as a toilet, bathtub and crack den more often than a soothing place to relax and read a book." Because they"giving up on fishing hypodermic needles and human feces out of the fountain," the Department of Public Works surrounded it with a temporary barrier.

United Nations Plaza Fountain with temporary chained barrier and "No Trespassing" sign (source: Hirsch, 2005)

In 2005 the fountain received a short respite when the plaza was spruced up for the the celebration of World Environment Days recognizing the 60th anniversary of the UN Charter in San Francisco. "Attractive" bollards and chains were erected to discourage bathing. Then Mayor Gavin Newsom ordered an increased police presence to prevent drug use and other antisocial behavior. He also intended United Nations Plaza more "active" by using it as a performance space and bringing in food trucks.

UN Plaza Fountain during 2005 World Environment Day celebration with United Nations Flags (image source: Hinshaw, 2015)

In 2003, John King, Allan Temko's successor at the San Francisco Chronicle, pronounced that "as good as Halprin is, this fountain hasn't stood the test of time." The granite structure did not cohere with its surroundings in the plaza and formed an obstacle to pedestrian flow to Leavenworth Street at the north.

1986, architectural historian Gray Brechin wrote a review of a 70th birthday exhibition for Lawrence Halprin given at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Here he discussed the many successful projects on display, however, he also cited a "necessary but tragic omission": Halprin's work on San Francisco's Market Street beautification project in collaboration with Mario Ciampi and John Carl Warnecke in the 1960s and 1970s.

He put his finger on the larger problem with their vision.

Market's [Market Street's] problems supersede design and maintenance. In the fifteen years since the beautification was completed, American society has undergone vast changes that Halprin and Ciampi could not anticipate. Market was designed for a stable, upscale retail base and middle-class consumers, but business was driven out by the long process of construction, and the boulevard has now surrendered to the dereliction, addiction and insanity that have grown yearly more noticeable and controllable. The usual attempted solution has been to put more cops on the beat, but symptoms indicate a problem that designers are helpless to correct and in some cases have worsened.

These designers, and one assumes city leaders, aspired to transform Market Street according to their aspirations, to make it a vital, thriving prosperous destination and a source of civic pride. The interval of time between the formation of this vision (circa 1960) and its realization (mid-1970s) saw many social changes nationally and locally.

Brechin continued:

It is impossible to evaluate Halpin's Hallidie and UN Plazas apart from the poverty they collect and contain. In UN Plaza at the Civic Center, the derelicts sun and prowl through Halprin's usually dry fountain. These plazas remind me of ragged spectators in the Roman ruins, or of Blade Runner.

Halprin defended and fought for the vision of his fountain until his death in 2009.  He didn't question his design. Instead he insisted that the city leaders should prevent the antisocial behavior from happening in the first place. "I'm not angry at the homeless," he said. "I'm angry at the people who let them not act civilly."

United Nations Plaza and its fountain continue to challenge San Francisco's leaders and its government.

Previous entries:

"United Nations Plaza Fountain Introduction" (June 22, 2023)

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

Bibliography: 

(Many of the articles can be found in the Newspaper Clipping File folder for "United Nations Plaza")

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

Better Market Street Project EIR Appendix 6: Cultural Resources Supporting Information (San Francisco Department of Public Works, [2016]).

Brechin, Gray, "Choreographer of Space," San Francisco Focus August 1986.

"Commission Approves $1.2 Million Fountain," San Francisco Examiner April 22, 1975.

Cone, Russ, "Valve Makes A Fountain of A Fiasco at UN Plaza," San Francisco Examiner March 17, 1978.

Day, Linda, "Lawrence Halprin and the Public Realm: Can the United Nations Plaza Unite San Franciscans?," Planetizen July 20, 2017. 

Fagan, Kevin, "U.N. Plaza Finally Getting New Look," San Francisco Chronicle March 19, 2005

Hinshaw, Mark, "Halprin Fountain Finds New Life," Landscape Architecture October 2005 [available through JStor].

Hirsch, Alison Bick, "The Fate of Lawrence Halpin's Public Spaces: Three Case Studies," Masters Thesis, University of Pennsylvania, 2005.

King, John, "A Vision Revision: U.N. Plaza Plan Lacks Attractions for Visitors," San Francisco Chronicle May 6, 2003.

Lelchuk, Ilene, "U.N. Plaza's Architect to Fight Redesign," San Francisco Chronicle April 18, 2003.

Lelchuk, Ilene, "City Give up on U.N. Plaza Fountain," San Francisco Chronicle March 12, 2003.

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

Robinson, Gene, "U.N.'s Party in Its Plaza" San Francisco Chronicle June 27, 1975.

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

Starr, Kevin, "$1.5 Million Pig Pen," San Francisco Examiner June 12, 1979.

Starr, Kevin, "Our Public Space Crisis," San Francisco Examiner June 13, 1979.

Temko, Allan, "The 'New' Market Street -- An Unfulfilled Promise," San Francisco Chronicle March 21, 1979.

Waugh, Dexter, "U.N. Plaza Stirs Market St. 'Renaissance," San Francisco Examiner September 13, 1978.

United Nations Plaza Fountain - A Troubled Birth

Fulton and Market, Aug 1964. Source: Open SF History

Earlier entry: United Nations Plaza Fountain Introduction (June 22, 2023)

The United Nations Plaza Fountain has its origins in the early 1960s with a grander redesign strategy for Market Street.  The Market Street Development Project, a group of businessmen working with the San Francisco Planning and Urban Renewal Association (SPUR), commissioned the study What to Do About Market Street (1962). They assigned themselves the "task of changing Market St. from a shabby main stem into a beautiful boulevard second to none."  Lawrence Halprin and Associates contributed a chapter in this document which contained the earliest proposal to Market Street with the Civic Center by opening up Fulton Street to create the space that became UN Plaza.

This work was followed up with a Market Street Design Task Force that began looking at the addition of the underground transit system that would become MUNI and BART.  Their 1965 report proposed narrowing Market Street, expanding sidewalk dimensions and creating a series of plazas.  This included closing Fulton Street from Market Street to Hyde Street to create a space tentatively named the Fulton Plaza or the Fulton Street Mall.  In late 1967 the firms of Mario Ciampi and John Carl Warnecke rendered this plan and presented it to the Board of Supervisors. This included the formal proposal to close Leavenworth Street between McAllister and Fulton Streets and Fulton Street between Market and Hyde Streets thus creating the footprint for a future plaza.  Mayor Joseph L. Alioto proposed naming it United Nations Plaza in 1970.

Model showing plans for park at United Nations Plaza. Source: San Francisco Historic Photograph Collection

By that time Lawrence Halprin's firm had joined Mario Ciampi's and John Carl Warnecke's firm to form the Market Street Joint Venture Architects. This organization would create the design for all of Market Street, its plazas and its transit stations.  According Pacheco, Halprin had conceived the original design of the United Nations Plaza fountain in 1962 during his "Modernist period." Hirsch describes Halprin's conception of United Nations Plaza being "dominated by a major sculpture" that would "direct views, ceremonial processions or parade events off Market Street and toward City Hall."

One of the earliest reactions to the design of the fountain for UN Plaza came at its unveiling in December 1970 at a San Francisco Art Commission meeting. Commission president, architect Ernest Born, generally praised the design of the Plaza, however, he excoriated Halprin's fountain:

This is a flamboyant example of a designer's ego. The fountain is a gross intrusion of a personal idea into a public space. It's hypocrisy. Whoever designed this wasn't thinking about the people who are going to use it. He was only thinking of himself. Why does this thing have to be so vulgar?

Model showing plans for fountain in United Nations Plaza. Source: San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection.

Born was reacting to Halprin's initial very large design that dwarfed the eventual final design.

The negative feedback continued the following year. In May 1971, the Civic Design Committee of the Art Commission unanimously asserted that Halprin's fountain was "not suitable." Art Commissioner and future San Francisco supervisor Thomas Hsieh complained:

We are very unhappy about this... It is a very fine design for a shopping center, but it is totally disproportionate in this area... The design just has nothing to do with Market Street and nothing to do with Civic Center. The designer just doesn't seem to respond to criticism or suggestion.

Columnist Jack Rosenbaum reported that by mid-1970 the Art Commission continued the discussion about the fountain for several sessions and wanted to see it redesigned.  Nevertheless, in December 1971 the full Art Commission voted to approve the broad Phase 1 of the Market Street design plan, with artists Ruth Asawa and Antonio Sotomayor (who described the fountain as "troughs for horses") voting against it.

Halprin's fountain itself came to a final vote in March 1974 when the commissioners in attendance voted it down by 4 to 3. The vote was changed to 4 to 4 when the Commission chairman, who was only supposed to be allowed to vote to break a tie, cast an affirmative to make the result a tie.  This created an opportunity for a second vote.  A few weeks later the Art Commission reconvened to  approve the fountain by 6 to 4.  All of the "no" votes against came from members of the commissions's Visual Arts Committee - Ruth Asawa, Anita Martinez, Antonio Sotomayor and Ray Taliaferro.  

Ruth Asawa summed of the change of course: "We voted in good faith March 4 and then they 'imported' some people to vote, some people who are there only when it is political and the fountain was approved." There was apparently behind the scenes pressure that allowed Halprin's design to prevail, probably coming from the influence of the three firms of the Market Street Joint Venture Architects and business interests wanting to assure a smooth Market Street reconstruction.

"We could be making a fortune building fountains in San Francisco"

Editorial cartoon by Ken Alexander showing prisoners breaking rocks under armed guard, source: San Francisco Examiner March 24, 1974

Public opinion did not favor the fountain. Storm clouds quickly formed.  In 1971 the fountain's cost had been estimated at $500,000. By the 1974 the actual cost had risen to $1,150,000 due to inflation and "more precise pricing." A San Francisco Examiner editorial called for scaling back the project; Supervisor Quentin Kopp explored placing a "statement of policy" opposing the fountain on the June 1974 ballot.  Five other supervisors joined him as co-sponsors. The ballot statement would have read:  

Should a fountain, constructed of granite slabs and estimated by the Department of Public Works bureau to cost $1,150,000, be built in United Nations Plaza on Market Street at the juncture of Leavenworth and Fulton Streets?

He fulminated that Halprin's fountain was "an architectural travesty" and "an environmental insult." Reacting to this public opinion, Art Commissioner Edward Callanan, an ex-officio member as President of the Library Commission, defended the fountain, remarking that "The tidal wave of water motion over the blocks will be pleasing to people." Commissioner Loris De Grazia defended her decision: "My vote stands for what I believed in... Now let's get on with completing the project."

Bowing to this pressure, the Art Commission reconvened for a special meeting lasting three minutes voting 6 to 2 to reverse their March 18 vote. Supervisor Kopp backed down and removed his ballot issue. Commissioner Ray Taliaferro proposed using the allocated funds for local artists and suggested that a competition might be held. Looking back it's apparent that the Lawrence Halprin had long had plans for this location and had the influence of the Market Street Joint Venture Architects and other political forces behind him. There would be not be any search for an alternative design or designer.

A year later, Halprin submitted a scaled back fountain design that that he presented to the Art Commission on April 24, 1975. Former commissioner Ernest Born, who had earlier been an outspoken opponent of the fountain, assisted Halprin in his presentation. The price tag remained at $1,200,000 for this more modest project. The design included a new element -- a 18 foot obelisk made of polished black granite in front.

source: The San Francisco Chronicle April 22, 1975

This time the Art Commission approved by a vote of 8 to 2 (Ruth Asawa and Sotomayor continued their opposition).  Ruth Asawa's closing comment was "$1.2 million is a lot of money to spend on just one thing."

After its final approval, columnist Herb Caen couldn't resist getting another dig in at the fountain, approvingly quoting Eleanor Rossi Crabtree, the daughter of former Mayor Angelo Rossi, who described the "fountain of slabs" as "Holy Cross cemetery with the sprinklers on."

The City planned to have the fountain complete to coincide with with the nation's Bicentennial celebration in July of 1965.

Bibliography

"Art Board Favors Mountain Fountain," San Francisco Examiner March 19, 1974.

Bartlett, Robert, "S.F. to Vote on Fountain," San Francisco Chronicle March 26, 1974.

Caen, Herb, "3-dot Journalism Spoken Here," San Francisco Chronicle April 29, 1975

City & County of San Francisco, Market Street Design Task Force. Market Street Development: An Analysis (The Task Force, 1965).

"Commission Approves $1.2 Million Fountain," San Francisco Examiner April 22, 1975.

Cone, Russ, "Two-week Deadline on Market St. Face-lift," San Francisco Examiner November 7, 1967.

Cooney, William, "Fuss Over S.F. Fountain," San Francisco Chronicle March 25, 1974.

Craib, Ralph, "New Fountain Vetoed: 'Too Blocky,' Says Art Committee," San Francisco Chronicle May 8, 1971.

"Divided Verdict on Plazas," San Francisco Chronicle December 22, 1970.

Hirsch, Alison Bick., City Choreographer: Lawrence Halprin in Urban Renewal America (University of Minnesota Press, 2014).

Kusserow, H.W., "BART Hit on 'Wrong Foot'," San Francisco Examiner December 22, 1970.

Lindsay, Georgia. "Bricks, branding, and the everyday: Defining greatness at the United Nations Plaza in San Francisco." Archnet-International Journal of Architectural Research, 2017.

Livingston and Blayney, What to Do about Market Street: Prospectus for A Development Program, prepared for the Market Street Development Project (Livingston and Blayney, 1962).

Mario J. Ciampi and Associates & John Carl Warnecke and Associates, Market Street Development Plan, Report No. 3: Street and Sidewalk Design Proposals (The Associates, 1965).

"Market St. Renovation Heads Picked," San Francisco Examiner December 20, 1962.

"Mayor Wants to Name BART Plaza for U.N.," San Francisco Chronicle October 24, 1970.

Minutes of the Arts Commission of the City and County of San Francisco (The Commission, 1970-1975).

"New Design for U.N. Fountain," The San Francisco Progress April 16, 1975.

"The New U.N. Fountain," San Francisco Chronicle April 22, 1975.

"Plaza Fountain Plans Rejected," San Francisco Chronicle April 4, 1974.

Rosenbaum, Jack, "Scene Shifting," San Francisco Examiner May 4, 1971.

"S.F. Fountain Costs Double," San Francisco Chronicle March 21, 1974.

"Too Costly," San Francisco Examiner March 25, 1974.

"U.N. Fountain May Go," The San Francisco Progress April 3, 1974.

"U.N. Plaza Fountain Design Dies," The San Francisco Progress April 5, 1974.

Waugh, Dexter, "UN Plaza Wins by Full House in Arts Board," San Francisco Examiner November 2, 1971.

Zane, Maitland, "A Debate Over Art for U.N. Plaza," San Francisco Chronicle March 30, 1974