Recently, the coalition called “Friends of the Plaza” filed a lawsuit [pdf] in San Francisco Superior Court. Their members aim to enforce California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) mandates to protect historic sites, including Embarcadero Plaza on San Francisco’s eastern waterfront. Designed over 50 years ago by notable landscape architect Lawrence Halprin, who received the National Medal of Arts in 2002, the plaza is under threat from city plans to fully redesign it. The San Francisco Arts Commission approved an 8-5 vote [pdf] in November 2025 to remove and store the controversial Vaillancourt Fountain from Embarcadero Plaza. The Vaillancourt Fountain, a celebrated modernist sculpture and the only public commission by Canadian artist Armand Vaillancourt in the U.S. CEQA requires a public environmental review to assess impacts, consider mitigation measures, and explore alternatives. The Board of Supervisors of the City and County of San Francisco affirmed that an statutorily exempt from environmental review in January 2026.
The Friends’ legal action alleges that the city’s action is insupportable
“Safeguarding the necessary guardrails of the CEQA review process is essential to insuring the protection of acknowledged historic resources like Embarcadero Plaza and the Vaillancourt Fountain, increasing transparency, and supporting authentic public engagement in development decisions.”
Charles A. Birnbaum, Founding President & CEO, The Cultural Landscape Foundation
In November 2025, the San Francisco Arts Commission, which owns the 710-ton fountain, voted to disassemble and put it into storage based on the city Recreation and Park Department contention that it poses an “immediate” hazard to the public. The Friends intend to show that the claim is a pretext to fast-track removal of the fountain from the plaza, manufacturing an emergency out of years of the city’s own deferred maintenance. By committing to the project before completing environmental studies prescribed by CEQA, the city would unlawfully preclude consideration of mitigation measures and alternatives.
The Friends seek enforcement of CEQA to ensure that the plaza’s future is determined through a transparent, equitable, and thoughtful process. Represented by environmental attorney Susan Brandt-Hawley, the Friends—whose members include the Vaillancourt Family, Docomomo US, Docomomo US/Northern California, and The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF)—will first seek a preliminary injunction to prevent the imminent dismantling of the artwork.