Wanted! The Provincial government is looking for a home for several tons of black marble, currently residing in a Coquitlam storage facility.
The marble is about 12 feet high and roughly six feet wide, and that’s all there is left from Vancouver’s Centennial fountain that first sat outside the former Vancouver courthouse in 1966. It was turned off in 2014 after a leak was found in the VAG’s storage area and hauled away in 2017.
Designed by Robert Savery:
The Centennial fountain was designed by Robert Savery, a landscape gardener and provincial government employee. It had blue and green mosaic tiles with colours that changed at night and pumped out over 1.3 million litres of water an hour through 245 brass sprinkler heads.
This story is from Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History.
From the outset the fountain was controversial, and not because of its colonial origins. The local artistic community 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.
Alex Von Svoboda:
In the centre of the fountain stood a marble sculpture designed by artist Alex von Svoboda, reputedly an Austrian count who immigrated to Toronto after World War 11.
Over the next five decades, 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.
Ben Larsson of the provincial government’s asset management branch, has been the sculpture’s reluctant custodian for the past six years. He needs the space and if he doesn’t find a home for it soon, it will be carted off and demolished.
Expensive to fix:
Ben’s a nice guy, but he’s not the world’s best salesperson. He says the sculpture is cracked and in two pieces. An informal verbal assessment conducted by staff six years ago estimated the cost to fix the rock would be $250,000. Add another twenty-five grand to move it, he says.
“Short of sticking it out in a forest on its own, there’s no place where we can store it and no funds to pay for it,” says Ben. “The amount of money that is required to restore and relocate this thing is astronomical and there’s not a lot of public appetite for that.”
Here’s the thing. If nobody else is willing to step up, please drop the marble sculpture on my front lawn. Forget the $250,000, I’ll make do with a tube of Super Glue and some duct tape.
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15 comments on “Wanted! Home for Centennial Fountain Sculpture”
It is too expensive to fix, keep and haul! Best to break it down. Vancouver is not a place that appreciates any form of rock Art and the way things are going in Vancouver these rocks would be vandalized . Make coasters out of the marble or rocks for someone garden .
Sell them at Garden works . Not saying this in an insulting way hit fact about Vancouverites!
So how about “sticking it in a forest on its own,” like in Stanley Park, for instance??? Hopefully something can be done to save this beautiful work which I remember so well.
They did this in North Vancouver. When Deep Cove residents rejected a sculpture the district put it in Princess Park. Visit it every time I go there.
Great article! I feel like van Dusen gardens could put them somewhere, broken or not. Or a carver could cut them into pieces? I hope it doesn’t go to landfill!
Thanks Jennifer, couldn’t agree more!
I’m with Lisa Smith above. Cart it off to some wooded area (somehow the Egyptians did it, why can we :), create some “lore” buzz around it and it will become a destination hike for locals and tourists alike. Look at the Whistler Train Wreck hike for inspiration. It’s art – it would be a shame for it to be destroyed. Ask Chip Wilson and his wife – I believe they saved the laughing statues in the West End.
I would love that sculpture in my yard! I think the idea if it going into a wooded park, Stanley Park or up Grouse would be lovely.
I found the statement that ‘government employees are incompetent in these fields of art’ appalling! Having seen some monstrosities of so called ‘art’ in Vancouver by ‘real artists’ I would chose the ‘incompetent government employee’s’ incompetant suggestions!
It’s too bad that the word ‘colonial’ has been attached to it. It’s negative and suggests it is unworthy of saving, and only a nostalgic trinket from Vancouver’s recent past and a foolish thing to honour.
Remember the carving. I’d love to have it in my front yard. The water would be nice but it looks great without it also. If not my front yard, some place in a park would be great. Stanley Park–well there certainly is room now that there is a lack of trees. Van Dusen Gardens would work. Some where at UBC or Pacific Spirit Park. Would they consider moving it to Nanaimo? It would look great here and I could see it.
It ought not to be hidden in storage. Out in the sun shine please.
I always felt that the Centennial Fountain should be reinstalled at Devonian Harbour Park (corner of Georgia and Denman).
I’m thinking, it doesn’t even have to be restored as a “fountain” but simply as a “sculpture.” Get rid of the “lip” that makes the mosaic into a basin that holds water and simply have it a sculpture with a mosaic surround. If the lip were left in place, especially if the sculpture were placed in the outdoors/park/the bush, it would fill up with debris and rainwater, but leaving it flat (or better yet slightly sloped, from the center outward) at least it wouldn’t fill up with water that would turn stagnant. There’s got to be a way to save this beautiful piece of art! PS I recall a couple Len Norris cartoons about it – one of a guy taking a bath in the fountain snapping “Who’s loitering?” at the cop who is obviously telling him move along. The other cartoon I recall was of an accident where a car hits a fire hydrant and there’s some comment about the resultant geyser being suggested as the new Centennial Fountain!
The name Alex Von Svoboda brought back memories for me. I grew up just around the the corner from where he lived in Don Mills (a suburb of Toronto). I agree that van Dusen Gardens might make a good site for the resurrected sculpture if funds can be found to re-locate it.
I agree with the comments about putting the sculpture in a park, even if it’s non-functional as a fountain! It would look beautiful in Stanley Park or in the Van Dusen Gardens. Thanks for this article about it needing a home!
Agree with others that Stanley Park would be a great site for the central sculpture. Something to come across in the woods- a titch mysterious — and ponder. Frankly, I think it’s a great shame, that Vancouver can’t have a fountain in its former location, where the sound of water creates respite from urban hurly burly. I think this admittedly quite odd monument is a sad story, it could have endured as a quirky pleasant space and I think was preferable to bleakness that replaced it.
A few weeks ago I was actually wondering what happened to this sculpture. I hope it finds a good home. The City has a poor record of maintaining sculptures that have water, such as the King George “fountain” at the VAG for which they pledged water “in perpetuity.” I see they did restore a drinking water tap to the Joe Fortes Memorial, yay!