I get the impression that a lot of people hate this fountain, but I think it's awesome. It reminds me of something that would have been in Planet of the Apes or Logan's Run: an early Seventies vision of the Grim Meathook Future.

You'd like the Montreal subway system quite a bit.

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Funny you should mention Montreal, since the official name of this fountain is Quebec Libre.

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I've always liked it too.

In your photo, it looks more like something out of Half Life, tho.

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Really, people don't like it? It really stands out (in a good way) from the one time in my adult life I visited San Francisco. Being about 48 hours sleep-deprived after the SpaceShipOne launch might have had something to do with it, but not entirely.

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Makes me think of the 1980 PBS version of "The Lathe of Heaven".

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I watched that a couple of years ago; it held up pretty well.

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It was even better with the Embarcadero Freeway looming
50 feet above.

Herb Caen hated it ("deposited by a dog with a square anus",
etc) so the dittoheads went right along with him. He's dead
so now we can like it.

Good to see they've got water in it again. Is that a seasonal
thing? Not like it's going to freeze in the winter or anything.

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I think it's been quite a while since it was dry, so I assume it was just broken...

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I suspect it'll get turned off again soon, to save water.

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Apparently he had shitty taste in food too.

All of the food places that Herb Caen loved, when I've eaten at them, they sucked. sigh.

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What doesn't Herb Caen hate? From what I've read the man made his career by hating everything that was good and only championing that which was mediocre and unpleasant.

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I wouldn't mind it if it didn't smell so much like piss most of the time.

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Come on now, I didn't say YOU smelled like piss.

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I've always loved the "Giant Dog with Square Intestines" statue!

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I thought it was really cool when I visited SF and happened across it. I took a bunch of pictures and walked along the stepping stones that go around the back.

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I love this sculpture too!

But! In the seventies, they called it Grim Fondue Fork Future.

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I love that fountain. You can walk through it!! How cool is that?

I just wish the City would fix the broken pumps that ought to run from some of the outlets.

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Where is this fountain?

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Peewee Herman Plaza.

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Thanks!

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That would be the one that my fellow countryman - and, indeed, distant neighbour - defaced during an impromptu back-of-a-semi gig in, hmm, 1989, I think. I like that it showed up in Midtown Madness 2, and you can not only drive around it, you can use it as an access ramp to get onto the roof of the building next to it. As an actual piece of art or whatever, though, I dunno. It doesn't offend me, but I didn't find myself cheering for it either.

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You should have heard the Outrage when they put it up.

And yes, Ape City. Very much so.

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If the locals don't like it, can we have it in London, please?

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It looks cool and stuff, the problem being that it was supposed to be room for a REAL park, like where people can sit and hang out, eat picnics etc...

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But there's a perfectly serviceable park for picnics and shit right behind the fountain.

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I don't have a problem with it. Its better than the stupid bow and arrow.

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Here here!

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I wish there was some way we could temporarily bury the bottom half of it and get some pictures of the top bits sticking out of the sand.

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If memory serves, Jacqueline Bisset is working on a model of this very fountain in her first scene in Bullitt (1968).

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At least it's not the EMP in Seattle. Sigh.

I kind of like it (the fountain, not EMP). It reminds me of Freeway Park.

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I've always liked it. Of course, I was born in SF, and grew up here, so it is forever fixed in my nostalgic memory, regardless of its design. Not sure what I might think about it were it possible to strip away the fondness borne of familiarity.

Then again, I watched the Marriott go up, and that engendered no such feelings.

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I first saw it in some old Sierra game, Manhunter or something and thought it looked pretty interesting in its 4-bit color rendition. I had no idea at the time it was a real fountain. But even working as a fountain it definitely has a post-apocalyptic feel to it.

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I always liked it....
It's the unique, artistic, out-of-the-norm type of fountain that always amazes me :)

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At my college there used to be a sculpture that looked a bit like that:



It used to stand in front of the sciences building, but then a pickup truck rammed into it, and it rusted in the weeds behind the stadium for a while. Then they took it away. I later learned that the title of the sculpture was "Education".

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This looks cool. And kinda reminds me of Jean Tinguely's "Fasnachtsbrunnen" in Basel (Switzerland):



His machines actually move and make noise though. And are especially pretty in winter when they freeze over. I kinda wonder what this fountain would look like when it freezes...

Anyway - to find more Fasnachtsbrunne images, search google images for "Fasnachtsbrunnen Basel".

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Want.

(I'm guessing you like brutalist buildings too? such people are rare.)

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I absolutely love it. On the other hand the terrible brutalist design of BART really gives off an impression of civic works with a complete disdain for aesthetics crossed with all the ugliest bits of something designed in the 60s and early 70s. I'm always amazed that BART is able to achieve a new level of ugliness for public transit especially compared to some of the surprisingly beautiful subway systems out there (e.g. Moscow, Paris, Montreal). Just another way in which our public transit can be a complete and utter failure especially in comparison to the rest of the world.

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It's round the corner from my current hotel. I kinda like it. Though SF does appear to be full of 'art' in general, so it feels like by putting modern art on every street corner sooner or later there will be one you like...

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I like it. And the LEGO version of it over at Legoland too.

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Awesome!

I would totally buy that lego kit.

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