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preservation of this monument is not only about maintaining a structure. it’s about honoring over 50 years of artistic heritage. what will it signify if we chose to prioritize temporary esthetics over enduring cultural legacies? i understand the work and funding needed for its application although the technical feasibility regarding its restoration cannot be undermined. the bold structural integrity of this 40 foot deep sculpture embedded with steel table could without a doubt still be standing for many, many years to come, still continuing to inspire pride among all ages in all cultures and all backgrounds. so i implore you to take more consideration and time on a plan for renovation. the vancouver found deserves our collective effort to be preserved as a distinctive emblem of san francisco one that celebrates our spirit and our freedom. >> thank you. thank you. next public comment.

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>> good afternoon. >> my name is bernadette kim. i am district three resident and also the gateway resident who lives directly across from superior park and embarcadero plaza where fountain resides. i’m here today because i am very concerned about the safety and the health concerns as a cancer survivor and also who’s supporting the embarcadero and superior park renovation project. >> i’m relocated from san francisco. well from los angeles to san francisco three and a half years ago. i often used to walk on this quiet embarcadero and looking at beauty of the surrounding in this little piece of heaven for healing while i was battling cancer. during covid pandemic travel

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back and forth from los angeles and that’s why i chose to live in san cisco. oh to have a retirement home and to especially choose to live where i do now. i have been frustrated and saddened by how our san francisco is portrayed to the world. i know we have some serious issues in our city. however, san francisco is also offers joy, beauty and life. >> i envision my san francisco, my district three and my neighbor who to show vibrant life joy, celebration and wonderful future to the world. i want people to see our impact matter plaza which is a gateway to many people to be beautiful

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and healing and joyful. >> unfortunately with thinking your time is up i see destruction. thank you. i want your time is up anyway. yeah. thank you. next public comment. >> good afternoon, members of the san francisco arts commission. my name is jackson napier speaking on behalf of the san francisco chamber of commerce. the san francisco chamber strongly supports the embarcadero plaza and superman park renovation project. this is a critical step in advancing the shared goal of revitalizing san francisco’s downtown and waterfront creating public spaces that are safe, accessible and welcoming for residents, workers and visitors alike. the embarcadero is the city’s front door. the first impression for millions of visitors and commuters entering downtown. it should reflect the best of san francisco vibrant, clean and connected to the surrounding neighborhoods and businesses. the proposed redesign is about moderate modernizing a key civic space to better serve our evolving city. this project addresses long

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standing challenges with circulation, accessibility and public safety while creating new opportunities for activation events and community gathering. this is a once in a generation opportunity to reinvest in the waterfront as an anchor for san francisco’s economic recovery and long term vitality. we urge the commission to approve the removal of the fountain and allow this important project to move forward for the benefit of our downtown, our residents and our local community. thanks. thank you. next public comment. yeah, the commissioners my name is scott stockman. >> i’m a resident of up a market a tokyo mobile board member and a practicing architect. recreation and parks is falsely portraying the conditions and activities around the fountain as a recent development. let’s review their own records. in 1988 37 years ago the assistant building manager of them back a daycare center alerted recreation and parks to a growing homeless population

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living in the area behind the fountain. the permit issued to be xp in the early 2000s and still in effect today lists one of speed’s responsibilities as maintenance of paving inside furniture including cleaning janitorial sanitizer, janitorial services, power washing and graffiti removal. since the adjacent petal courts have been in use paddleboards build up in the fountain space and this paints a clear picture. ipd has been aware for over the more than 30 years that unhoused individuals gather in the public spaces and on public art including the fountain. ipd has been aware for over 20 years that regular power washing and graffiti removal is necessary to maintain the plaza and fountain. ipd has allowed the installation of facilities. he has appellate courts that increase the likelihood of people entering the fountain itself. so there is no recent

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development here. >> ipd is attempt to portray this as an escalation forced into thoughts apart in front of their own backyards. i urge you to reject this attempt to turn homeless people within maintenance a decades long challenges into scaremongering. to accelerate their and person properties development plans and making them irreversible. the fountain once disassembled cannot be pieced together again. >> thank you. thank you. next public comment. >> good afternoon commissioners. my name is dan rabinowitz. >> i’m a happy and proud district three resident. honor and fairness require that i remind the commission and my friends and colleagues in the audience that i do strongly support the merger and continued development of superman park and embarcadero plaza. i believe this is an important development for our city.

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for reasons which have been discussed elsewhere. >> but that’s not the question which is before the commission today. what is before the commission today? i’d just like to observe is a set of considerations which every museum in the world faces all the time. our young our legion of honor. our museum of modern art. our museum of the african-american diaspora. the jewish museum. every one of the museums here faces the same issues that the louvre, the prado, the national gallery in london face portions of the collection from time to time are placed in storage. portions of the collection require assessment remediation. reconstruct action sculptures are moved from one plinth to another. paintings are exhibited at one

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place in another place. what the commission is doing is precisely what every museum must do which is to take care of its collection in the broadest sense. you are not being asked to deaccession or to destroy. we are putting this aside in the potential that extrinsic funding will in the long run better informed by better engineering assessment be available for a potential relocation and reconstruction of this piece. >> but this is a line running in the art world. >> thank you. thank you. next public comment. good afternoon members of the commission. my name is keith ferris. district six san francisco. >> and my feeling is that that

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sculpture should be removed. but have you even considered the price of totally removing it and breaking it down into its various components and not just putting it in storage but just removing it permanently as the previous gentleman said in various museums they also do things like permanent removal of objects. >> so i have another question. >> is this part of your permanent collection? have you purchased? has the city purchased the sculpture the fountain? anybody answer that question? we’re not allowed to comment. we only can. >> oh. oh, you don’t answer questions. okay. anyway, i guess that is an

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ethical problem for the arts commission to come up with whether permanent removal restoration or storage and if it goes into storage. i’m with mr. kearny. it will disappear. i don’t think it’ll ever reappear again and it’ll just be a constant thing on the budget over and over again. >> anyway, thank you very much for your time. thank you. next public comment. >> hi, my name is jeff brink. i’m with dci engineers. we’re one of the structural firms that provided an assessment of the fountain. what’s going to answer questions before but don’t know what the format is here and i realize now i probably can’t take questions from anybody if i wanted to be available to do that if needed. i was going to comment i know there was some conversation in questions about the need to

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disassemble this fountain in order to evaluate it. so i was going to comment on that briefly. we do a lot of structural assessments of structures throughout the city including buildings and one of the typical things we come across is that structure is hard to see when this building is completed or in this case the fountain is completed. the fountain is unique in the aspect that it is a composite structure the steel lining, the concrete encasement, the steel tension rods were all basically embedded with each other and installed with each other similar to what we do in buildings when we’re assessing them we often ask to ask the owners to selectively demo or tear out parts of the facade in order to be able to see what we need to do to assess it and determine next steps for structural repair. >> we’re essentially in the same situation with the fountain but it is a complex situation because of the fact it is a composite structure. the concrete, the steel are all embedded within each other. so taking out any part of it without taking down all of it actually becomes a a structural challenge, a safety issue trying to shore it up or temporarily remove parts of it

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to assess the level of corrosion in particular within the steel encased tubes is extremely difficult and i would say impossible to do. i know during our structural assessment we considered climbing up into the tubes to evaluate them but it really was not a viable option. that said, the level of corrosion i think is something that definitely needs to be addressed in order to determine next steps for whatever we’re going to do with it. so maybe it does have any questions afterwards. i’m available. thank you very much for your time. >> thank you. next public. >> hi there. my name is adam lynch founded a clothing company here in san francisco about 15 years ago. we have three retail stores here in the city and employ about 100 folks who many of whom live here, all of whom work in the city. i’ll try to keep it really simple and brief my perspective here. i’m just bringing in as one of our local business owners who

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love this city very much. i think on the merits of what’s before you and the action before you, i think it’s pretty straightforward. best use of public funds would be to, you know, selectively remove the project. and obviously from a public safety perspective it seems like a pretty straightforward decision i would say. my second perspective is just to call out as a business who has been operating here for a long time have been through covid. it’s been a really, really, really rough 4 or 5 years for us. we keep our folks coming into the office every day supporting local businesses that portsdown there. if this is a means with which we can revitalize that plaza where i can have our employees who are either after work or coming to and from work on budget every day to spend a little bit more time in the city. great cities activate their public spaces in really special and new and revitalized ways. that’s a really, really special potential area of the city.

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just highly encourage the commission to support this great project you know paved the way for some continued increased vitality in the city. thank you very much. appreciate it. >> thank you. >> next public comment. >> good afternoon, president collins, commissioners director remington. my name is tina bell, chief of staff to district three supervisor danny sartor. supervisor sartor would like to urge this body to take action to remove this significant public safety hazard which has brought been brought to our attention by the department of building inspection. we consider life safety to be a significant concern and we our office will always advocate to do what’s best and safest for our public. >> the gbi has pointed out that

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the area should be secured pending abatement and we know from our previous hearing that abatement will come at a significant cost. it’s a sum that simply can’t be justified giving that the city is fighting to save critical services. >> and the other thing that supervisors sartor wanted to make bring back to this body is the notion that you are the stewards of our public art, public art that has been procured for the enrichment of san franciscans and people who visit our city. so as you deliberate this question and other questions relating to the fountain, please keep in mind what our local residents are saying specifically the folks who live and work in the area the barbary coast neighbors, the gateway tenants. i believe that everyone or the vast majority support moving forward with the reimagining of this area and we urge you to make decisions towards that

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goal. >> thank you. thank you. next public comment. >> good afternoon commissioners. my name is chris wright. i’m here on behalf of advance s.f. advance s.f. as an organization comprised of san francisco’s leading employers dedicated to a resilient and vibrant economy shared by all people working and living in san francisco. >> for over three years our organization has worked directly with city government, business and community partners to advocate for solutions for our downtown economic core to become a more economically diverse neighborhood rich with experiences. >> we support the relocation of the fountain as part of the redesign of a park at our plaza. the redesign of the plaza is an important part of re-energizing downtown is a chance to make this space pedestrian friendly, culturally rich and welcoming to residents visitors and tourists. the fountain was built nearly 50 years ago downtown and its

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role and its situation has changed dramatically since then. relocating in this fountain will open up possibilities for a reimagined public space that draws people back to the heart of the city. san francisco needs spaces that meets today’s needs. places that feel open, active and connected to the waterfront. revitalizing this plaza while finding a respectful new home for this historic artwork. we hope to help make downtown a more inviting and energized part of our city. thank you for your work and considering the step towards a stronger and welcoming san francisco. >> thank you. thank you. >> next public comment. >> thanks for taking the time to listen to the item here. my name is andrew sullivan, a landscape architect in the city of san francisco and i had the pleasure to work with larry eilperin from 1999 through about 27 and had many

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conversations with him about this plaza and fountain specifically both its kind of original state and it kind of evolved evolving context around it and also conversations around the renovation of market street that he was involved with and the the sequences of open space and fountains etc. that are all part of a kind of a connected dialog. i think understanding that context is important. i think the what i would say is that it feels to me as a as a landscape architect who has gone through this process on many projects both public and private that has been a very disingenuous process from the beginning both with the design through the design phases which gave no opportunity or input for input regarding a potential renovation and or reimagination of the fountain and or any portions of the plaza within the context of what was being

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proposed. it was just off the table from the beginning. it felt to me once you once that became a noted an issue in public meetings the trend, the conversation transitioned to it’s a cost issue. i think again that disingenuous is the word i would use to describe the cost estimate that the estimates that i’ve reviewed. and then thirdly, when there has been discussions of national registry designation for this, all of a sudden there’s a new emergence and the fountain has to be removed if removed. to to commissioner patrick’s point. i don’t see this coming back. i think it’s again a smoke and mirrors way to get this out get it out quickly put it to bed for three years and when everybody’s forgotten about it it can be oh, thank you. thank you, thank you. next public comment. >> okay. good afternoon. members of the commission.

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my name is aaron fenton with bxp and i’ve been working with parks contracting wd to transform the embarcadero plaza into a world class destination park. i stand before you today in strong support for the immediate removal and storage of the fountain. in order to protect the health and safety of residents and visitors to the plaza, this is not a call to erase a piece of history but rather a plea to prioritize public safety above all else. let us confront the undeniable reality. the fountain poses an immediate and serious risk to public safety. the conditions assessment report prepared by paige and turnbull is unequivocally clear that the structure is riddled with cracks, corrosion and missing key structural supports that need to be addressed over the summer park and wreck. erected a fence around the fountain to protect the to protect the public. >> but this is only a band-aid and not a practical long term solution. i go to work at embarcadero center five days a week and have seen on numerous occasions in the past two months people breaching the fence with ease and i fear worst case scenario where

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someone could get seriously injured if a piece of the fountain fails. but here’s the critical point. whether the city ultimately decides to restore relocate or even deaccession the fountain it must be disassembled. you can’t diagnose diagnose a patient without extensive examination and you cannot repair a fountain without accessing its bones. >> the plan to disassemble the found and stored off site allows experts to conduct the thorough evaluation needed for any fix. this cannot be done safely and effectively with the with the structure intact. commissioners san francisco thrives because we balance our creative soul with the practical demands of a living city. approving this emergency removal today safeguards lies and buys time to properly analyze the fountain. and as i just mentioned, whether or not the fountain is restored or not. >> disassembling the fountain is the only available option to consider today. >> thank you. thank you. next public comment. >> good afternoon commissioners

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. my name is robbie silver, president and ceo of the downtown asset partnership and we are the fiscal sponsor of the embarcadero plaza and to beerman renovation project. we have the utmost respect for the artist and his work and we understand that this is a difficult conversation and we must have it as a community. but today’s conversation is about the health and safety of san franciscans and our visitors. the fountain has served the city and its visitors well for a time and a place and that time and place was designed to create a civic public space. faced away from our ferry building. fast forward to today with the freeway down and today’s momentum for a re-imagined downtown. this is our time and place to pave the way for a new five acre waterfront world class park.

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>> i want to thank you all for having this consideration and also thank our rec and parks department for taking this discussion seriously and providing their due diligence on laying out what’s best for embarcadero park and the project and its future on the space. we are really excited to as the fiscal sponsor to raise private dollars to make this project a shovel ready as possible. so again we can have a brand new waterfront park and at the same time we can look at doing our due diligence to figure out what’s the best next step for this piece of art and potentially its new home. thank you. thank you. next public comment. hello everyone. i’m a case i’m a restaurant owner in san francisco. i have four restaurants in the area that are directly connected to this area.

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i opened my first restaurant 17 years ago. so i’ve seen the area and the fountain every day. i work seven days a week and i just see that unfortunately the area is really dead. there’s nothing happening. as a restaurant owner we’ve been waiting for opportunities like this to revive the energy and the interest of people into those areas and especially after covid. every single restaurant in the area almost closed. some of us survive and we survived because it’s a great city with a lot of entrepreneurs, people that work hard and in this area has so much potential for people like us to bring interest and that’s also art restaurants, food, music, tourism you know, people are really dying to see

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something happening there. that’s what the culture of the city i think that’s really important. and then for the safety i’m not qualified to talk about the safety. but one thing i can tell you as someone who’s there every day is that it looks unsafe for the public. so whether you’re a tourist or with your with your family, you walk around this area, you just don’t really know what’s going on. it’s it’s it feels unsafe which keeps people away from the area instead of activating the area and bringing the culture and some vibrancy. so i see people still trying to stay away telling their kids don’t get close to this because i don’t know what it is like. it’s it looks dangerous. skateboarders is using this space to have fun but that’s not safe either. thank you everybody. >> thank you very much. next public comment.

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>> hi, good afternoon. >> my name is jillian sobel and i’m a born and raised san francisco resident. district seven. beauty is in the eye of the beholder and the vancouver fountain is the most beautiful piece of polarizing public art i’ve ever seen. 50 years it’s been here over 50 years and it needs maintenance not removal. the fencing up has done its part. it’s protected. it. people don’t go there anymore except for the that fly over and people are going to get the from the racquetball courts. >> i met this still living 96 year old artist and he is an amazing human being. he created a piece of art with the press reverence of the 1960s and 70s and because of rec and parks department’s underinvestment in the piece it is now up to your this committee and you individuals

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to make a decision. i’ve worked public events and i know public safety is a number one so i appreciated the and thing. however removing it to do further research and further investigation seems like just kicking the can down the road so this beautiful piece is eligible for the national registry of historical places under criteria c three it’s a one event and c three so if there’s money you are looking for i know of private funding and public funding state and federal that can be used to help us because this might be bigger than something that san francisco’s budget can handle and yes the vote not please vote not to move it and have it be lost in the storage forever and please vote now to keep the vancouver fountain and show it some love and honor history and prepare for our future. thank you.

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>> thank you. next public comment. >> good afternoon. my name is crystal berry. >> i’d like to speak on the removal of the vaillancourt fountain. this the needs of the city have evolved. what once was it now stands as a barrier to connection a massive unused structure that divides what could be a vibrant, inclusive community space. we have an opportunity to reimagine this plaza into something that reflects a disenfranchized go open, accessible, sustainable and alive with people. removing the fountain isn’t about erasing art it’s about creating space for life for local events, families, small businesses and the everyday moments that build community. as a manager of fitness s.f. embarcadero a park renovation gives us a space to organize small group classes open to the public and host events that promote health and wellness especially to those who cannot afford the price of our gym memberships which i see all the time.

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i was actually brought in to help keep our gym alive because it was facing the potential closing because that area is is so dead and i’m only just seeing it become revitalized and i want to see that even further into the future. >> thank you. thank you. next public comment. hi, my name is william mccloud. i’m a photographer here in san francisco. i live in the mission. i was born and raised here. i remember when the fountain was installed. i’m a huge. >> well, first of all, i want to know how many of you have walked through the fountain with the water on. >> okay. okay. and how many of you taken your kids through the fountain with the water on this found is not this is not just this is not just the fountain. it’s an experience. this is one of the most vital

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incredible fountains i’ve ever seen anywhere in the world. >> it’s really magical. >> in about 1940 diego rivera painted a mural on treasure island that has is now in storage. it’s you know, until it was at sfmoma most people never saw it except the you know, people who were at the theater building at city college which has been planning on building a new bigger building for it for years. but now it’s in storage again. >> so if this moves i you know i understand the safety issues although i don’t understand some of the issues like asbestos and lead paint because those usually weren’t mixed into the concrete. so every time i hear asbestos and lead paint brought up i don’t know if that’s just the pump room which it would be really easy to remedy or if it’s actually something in the concrete fountain itself. >> it is it is 29 seconds. mm hmm. okay. so when i went to meet a

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