Fulton and Market, Aug 1964. Source: Open SF HistoryEarlier 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.
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.
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
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment