Justin Herman Plaza

Kevin G.
May 8, 2007 at 1:48 PM
2 comments

On a really hot, really sunny weekday, there's nothing like people-watching down at Justin Herman Plaza. In 1990 the plaza was nothing but the brick plaza, the butt-ugly fountain, and the abandoned double-decker concrete of the Embarcadero Freeway towering over it. Today it's got palm trees, bay views, and the butt-ugly fountain. (California law prohibits the removal of public artwork without the artist's permission, and he said he liked it fine where it was.)

bike knot

There's a bunch of food down there, the trick is to find someplace where you can get the food back outside fast enough to enjoy the sun. I had two slices at Parkway Pizza. I don't know what anybody else had, because they all ditched me so they could cower in the shade.

We're all sweaty now, though.

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That's the Vaillancourt Fountain, thankyouverymuch, and it's one of my favorite places in San Francisco. My first office after I moved to the bay area was in Embarcadero Center Four, and I used to go down and walk underneath the fountain to blow off stress. There's nothing like all that water crashing down around you.

Oh, sure, I like it too, I love fountains you can walk around in. But it's still ugly. And it could fit the space better. I went to some of the planning commission meetings when they were redesigning the space after the freeway came down and got some of the scoop there. The fountain was built when the only thing behind it was the double-decker freeway, so it's shaped like a wall and it's oriented totally toward the plaza. Now that the space is open behind it, the wall-like aspect of it cuts the plaza off from the nice stuff on the other side of it, which is a shame. And if you come at it from behind (which would have been impossible when the freeway was there), it's just awful to look at.

To be fair, I think the artist was open to redesigning it, just not moving it. I don't know every precise detail of the story, and I'm too lazy right now to check wikipedia for it.

Justin Herman Plaza

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