Describe the characteristics of the On and off in Vaillancourt Fountain's History.
At the fountain's opening in 1971, both the water flow and human participation were considered integral to the work. Alfred Frankenstein, writing for the San Francisco Chronicle, noted "the heart of the idea is the unique one of public entry into and intimate exploration of the fountain's innards; in this it is unique and decidedly a success. It is not a great work of sculpture, which is like observing that an automobile is not much of a success as a horse."The water was turned off at the fountain from 2001 until 2004, reopening on August 2, 2004. San Francisco estimated the cost of electricity was approximately US $200,000 per year to operate the fountain. Peskin negotiated a public-private partnership where the city would pay for the operating costs (at a revised estimate of US $76,000 per year) and Boston Properties would pay for maintenance (estimated at US $20,000 per year). The fountain was shut off again during the winter of 2007–08 starting in November 2007 so that skaters at the Justin Herman Plaza ice rink would not be splashed. It reopened on January 21, 2008.In reaction to the 2011–17 California drought, all of San Francisco's public fountains were shut off in order to conserve water. Vaillancourt Fountain was turned off in 2014 for the drought, but after that drought ended, the Recreation and Park department cited lack of funds to make repairs to the Vaillancourt Fountain as the reason it had not been reactivated. The estimated cost of rehabilitation to allow water to flow again was approximately US $500,000.Charles Desmarais, the current art critic of the San Francisco Chronicle echoed Frankenstein's comments from 1971, calling for the water to return in an August 2017 opinion article:[T]he water is as essential to [Vaillancourt Fountain] as it was superfluous to [the nearby Mechanics Monument]. Vaillancourt is a sprawling, lifeless skeleton in its current dry state, with a chain-link fence blocking the two sets of stairs that once allowed people to peer down into the roiling maelstrom below. The chain of island-like steppingstones that made visitors feel they were walking on water is now a gantlet of precarious pedestals several feet above a rock-hard floor. The site is littered with trash. ...  It makes little sense to spend money to add even a single new object to our civic art collection if we allow the virtual eradication, through neglect and obliviousness to its original intention, of our city's most visible public work. We are the heirs to a memorial that, encountered as it was designed to be, animates a moment in art and history that cannot be re-created. If our city agencies can understand that, their priorities should be as clear as the waters of a healthy Vaillancourt Fountain.
On August 15, 2017, water was restored to the fountain as a test run, with the intention that it will stay on until November, when the ice rink reopens. The water has been dyed with the 'Blue Lagoon' aquatic dye to control the growth of algae and bacteria. The nontoxic aquatic dye attenuates the penetration of light into the water, and tints the water blue.
Mechanics Monument 2011–17 California drought Charles Desmarais San Francisco San Francisco Chronicle Justin Herman Plaza Justin Herman Alfred Frankenstein