The El Presidio Park fountain, constructed almost 50 years ago, is fenced off while the city of Tucson and Pima County discuss the future of the fountain. Construction for the January 8th Memorial at 165 W. Alameda St. is in the background.
The El Presidio Park fountain needs to be βrepaired or removed,β Pima County administrator Chuck Huckelberry said, adding he did not have a preference.
The El Presidio Park fountain, shown in 1973, has remained empty for the last few years amid concerns that leaking water could damage the concrete parking structure below it.
The El Presidio Park fountain, constructed almost 50 years ago, is fenced off while the city of Tucson and Pima County discuss the future of the fountain. Construction for the January 8th Memorial at 165 W. Alameda St. is in the background.
Photos by Rebecca Sasnett / Arizona Daily Star
The El Presidio Park fountain needs to be βrepaired or removed,β Pima County administrator Chuck Huckelberry said, adding he did not have a preference.
Rebecca Sasnett / Arizona Daily Star
The El Presidio Park fountain, shown in 1973, has remained empty for the last few years amid concerns that leaking water could damage the concrete parking structure below it.
Once seen as βthe heartβ of a planned renovation of the El Presidio Plaza downtown, the El Presidio Park fountain sits waterless and in a state of disrepair, enclosed by a chain-link fence.
Now, with the long-anticipated January 8th Memorial on track to open in time for the decade anniversary of the shooting, Pima County administrator Chuck Huckelberry is asking the city of Tucson to make a decision about the nearly-50-year-old sculptureβs future.
βOur position is it needs to be repaired or removed,β Huckelberry said. βI think our view of El Presidio is it needs to be a more open, welcome public gathering place. The fountain could play a part in that. It would need to be restored β¦ and then maintained.β
The hulking sculpture, in the middle of the plaza that houses city and county buildings, has remained empty for the last few years because of concerns that leaking water could damage the concrete parking structure underneath.
Its maintenance has been the cityβs responsibility as part of a half-century-old agreement, according to Huckelberry, who said the biggest concern has been the fact that it has attracted skateboarders, turning it into a nuisance and a liability.
Huckelberry said he does not have a preference on its future, calling it a βunique piece,β and joking that he has watched the water turn from blue to green during his decades in his position.
βThe biggest problem is I donβt think anybody at this point has a good handle at how to repair it,β he said.
In a statement, Tucson spokesman Andy Squire said the cityβs manager office is in the early stages of evaluating the requirements to repair the fountain and doesnβt have an estimated timeline, cost or potential funding sources for its repair.
βOnce the evaluation is complete, the information will be provided to the mayor and council for their review and, if necessary, will be added to a future study session agenda for discussion,β he said.
The potential deaccession of the fountain has otherwise concerned some, including Demion Clinco, the CEO of the Tucson Historic Preservation Foundation, who called the situation βfrustrating.β
Clinco said he has reached out to the Southern Arizona Arts Foundation as well as the stateβs historic preservation board, adding that he was told by the latter that itβs eligible to be included on the historic places list.
βItβs frustrating to hear this fountain needs to be removed because it has condition issues,β Clinco said. βWhen something isnβt maintained, thatβs what happens.β
He said the fountain is one of Charles Clementβs most-recognizable public works in Tucson. The piece was one of five commissioned from local artists when El Presidio was being revamped as a public plaza in the late 1960s. Other pieces have been lost or broken.
The goal of the fountain was to create βan allegory to this regionβs relationship with water and how precious water is,β according to Clinco, who said it is stylized with the brutalist architecture of the time period.
It has since remained an βindelible and iconic feature of the plaza,β he said.
βThat fountain has really been the backdrop of peopleβs weddings and graduations, as well as protests and celebrations. It really is our civic space, and that fountain has played such an important role in that public space,β he said.
Plans were put in place to revamp the fountain alongside the January 8th Memorial, which serves as an ode to the 2011 shooting that left six Tucsonans dead and U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 12 others wounded.
A master plan for the project from architecture firm Chee Salette states the Clement Fountain would sit βat the heart of the plaza,β and would be βexpanded to create a water play area using recycled water collected on site.β Plans were scaled back after donations fell short after the Legislature failed to pass funding for the memorial.
Ron Barber, who was wounded in the shooting and now serves on the board of the memorial, said he has reached out to the city and the county and understands concerns about the repair, including hazards and costs.
But he personally would not like to see it go.
βI think it needs to be fixed,β he said. βWhen (the memorial) is done, thereβs this really beautiful centerpiece as you enter the courthouse. The fountain sits besides it. If it isnβt fixed, itβs going to be pretty obvious that something is wrong here.β
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