In 2014, the Centennial fountain that sat outside the former Vancouver courthouse was removed after nearly half a century. It had been turned off the year before after a leak was found in the Vancouver Art Gallery’s storage area. While the new, sterile looking plaza hasn’t been wholeheartedly embraced, neither was the fountain when it was designed by Robert Savery, a landscape gardener employed by the provincial government in 1966.
This story is from Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History.
We had a Paint-in:
Vancouver turned 80 on April 6, 1966 and Mayor Bill Rathie held a paint-in. The event was a huge success and included over 100 art students who had signed up and been assigned spots along the hoarding. The art stayed up until the fountain was revealed the following December.
The Big Reveal:
The Centennial fountain was a $45,000 gift to the City of Vancouver. It featured a 4.8 metre marble sculpture designed by artist Alex von Svoboda, blue and green mosaic tiles with colours that changed at night, and pumped out over 1.3 million litres of water an hour. The local artistic community were outraged and said the government should keep out of the fountain business and put all public art to a competition. “[Government] employees aren’t qualified to design works of art or sculpture. They are incompetent in these fields of art,” said Frank Low-Beer, chair of the community arts council committee.
They had a point, but I loved that fountain anyway.
The Fountain:
Over the next 48 years, the fountain endured visits from canoeists, waders and pranksters with soapsuds. It was the meeting place and rallying point for dozens of public demonstrations including Grey Cup rioters and anti-war protesters in the 1960s, 4/20 cannabis smoke-ins and the tent city of Occupy Vancouver in 2011.
The Centennial Fountain replaced Charles Marega’s from 1912. His fountain languished in storage until 1983 when the VAG moved into the building, and it was installed at the Hornby Street side.
May be there’s hope for a reappearance of Savery’s 1966 fountain.
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