Now that there’s momentum for a total makeover of the red-brick plateau known as Embarcadero Plaza, count me in. I only have one small request: Don’t get rid of Vaillancourt Fountain. Yes, I’m ...

The 40-foot-tall, 710-ton fountain, installed in 1971 next to the Embarcadero Freeway, has survived a legion of critics over the decades who decried its blocky Brutalist aesthetic.