Embarcadero Plaza, at the foot of Market Street, held the Vaillancourt Fountain from 1971 to 2026: a 40-foot sculpture of stacked square concrete tubes by Quebecois artist Armand Vaillancourt, with walkways that let visitors pass through and under the falling water. It was designed to face, and argue with, the double-deck Embarcadero Freeway that then walled off the waterfront. In 1987 U2 played a free concert here and Bono spray-painted “Rock and Roll Stops the Traffic” on it.
The fountain outlived the freeway by 35 years but not the arguments about it. After decades of repair backlogs and dry spells, the Arts Commission voted in November 2025 to remove it, over the objections of preservationists and the artist. Crews dismantled it in April and May of 2026; the pieces are in storage, with their future undecided after 2028.
The plaza itself is now being rebuilt as a five-acre park with a grand lawn, in a city partnership with BXP, so expect construction here. The history is the stop: this corner is where San Francisco has fought longest about what its waterfront should look like.
