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New Paseo Nuevo Fountain
updated: Jan 21, 2013, 10:49 AM

By Edhat Subscriber

What do people think of the new fountain at Paseo Nuevo?

Comments in order of when they were received | (reverse order)

COMMENT 365754P	2013-01-21 10:55 AM
My kids miss jumping around the smooth walls of the old structure....
COMMENT 365765	2013-01-21 11:08 AM
It was poorly conceived and poorly reviewed by the city council, but this is not the first nor the last time that the council was asleep at the job.
COMMENT 365772	2013-01-21 11:21 AM
It is completely out of proportion to its surroundings. Really sad to see the twin fountains gone and miss seeing the small children enjoying that space :( Also miss the sun face fountains at the De La Vina & State entrance to Paseo Nuevo :(
COMMENT 365779P	2013-01-21 11:32 AM
Sad and silly waste of money. The area wasn't broke, and this refugee lawn-art from a pretentious Montecito garden doesn't fix anything.
COMMENT 365780	2013-01-21 11:33 AM
Is that the Big Phallus you're asking about? That was my first thought when I saw it.
COMMENT 365793	2013-01-21 12:03 PM
The question's been posed before. Search EdHat "Paseo Nuevo" and click on the 3rd one from 12/21/12. Lots of opinions! It's truly so sad that something that everyone loved and enjoyed was destroyed.
COMMENT 365801	2013-01-21 12:40 PM
True the new one is not attractive. But everyone saying their kids loved walking on it, crawling through it etc, makes me wonder if Paseo Nuevo saw it as a liability.
COMMENT 365817P	2013-01-21 01:31 PM
The previous one was lovely. It wasn't broke and they shouldn't have fixed it.
COMMENT 365828	2013-01-21 02:17 PM
779p, a waste of money is totally subjective. We didn't pay for it. The mall owner/company did. They're allowed to upgrade and spend money, even if it seems like waste to you. That is how businesses work.
COMMENT 365839P	2013-01-21 02:41 PM
Didn't we just go through all this a couple of weeks ago?
COMMENT 365868	2013-01-21 04:17 PM
It is private property.
COMMENT 365877	2013-01-21 04:47 PM
It is uninteresting and does not improve the site.
COMMENT 365929	2013-01-21 06:25 PM
They go from a much loved, much used, artist-designed project to an off-the-shelf mundane thing. What were they thinking?
COMMENT 365934	2013-01-21 06:30 PM
Waste of money
SHAGGY	2013-01-21 09:05 PM
Love it,modern design rocks . New seating is comfy and much needed
LALALALA	2013-01-22 06:23 AM
I'd like to know who sanctioned this, ABR? ..or is Paseo not subject to design review? Yup, big ugly and phalic.
COMMENT 365991	2013-01-22 06:32 AM
The phallus symbol??? OMG we died when we saw it. Thought it was a joke at first, not done, or something missing. Who in hell conceived of it and who thought what was there wasn't ok?? Seriously bad. So sad to see such a glaring, stupid, ill conceived project. Really unfortunate.
COMMENT 365994P	2013-01-22 07:01 AM
It's ugly, doesn't fit the area or the mall and yes, while the other may have been a liability it was very interesting and pretty.
COMMENT 366001	2013-01-22 07:22 AM
I loved the old structure. My dad had a ritual of having our picture taken thru the"hole" in the back. I never thought about liability but now that you mention it..when i worked in the mall the security guards had to spend a huge part of their day telling kids to get down from there
TROLLEY TOM	2013-01-22 07:38 AM
The new sculpture was approved by the Art in Public Places committee. However, it it not finished and folks should wait before commenting. The concept follows what is seen in public squares in Spain.
COMMENT 366014P	2013-01-22 07:46 AM
The previous one was very beautiful. However, it was never intended to be a playground. Since it didn't look like basic manners were going to make a comeback anytime soon, getting rid of it seemed to be the only way to not get sued until the next century.
GBOB	2013-01-22 09:03 AM
Gentlepeople, There are always those who blame "the government" for everything, usually without a clear understanding of what our government actually does, or how. The City Council does not approve architectural design; the Historic Landmarks Commission (HLC) and Architectural Board of Review (ABR) have this responsibility. Within El Pueblo Viejo (Paseo Nuevo's location) HLC has jurisdiction. Their job is NOT to dictate design, but to guide designers within the context of our Spanish Colonial Revival-based downtown. This new design is in fact more appropriate to the district than the original. That said, the original design was more attractive and engaging, to kids and probably everyone else. The only element of the new design that might be considered an improvement is the more comfortable and user-friendly continuous bench that replaced the steps. The steps were more versatile, but not comfortable for seating for long periods, and not easy for elderly or handicapped people to use. It MAY be that the original design was too much of an attractive nuisance (lawyers & insurance companies silently rule our lives). The twin fountains at the State Street entrance were (sadly) removed some time ago, possibly for the same reason, as well as to save money on maintenance and upkeep.
COMMENT 366052	2013-01-22 09:35 AM
Me no like.
COMMENT 366056P	2013-01-22 09:42 AM
Appropriate to the district. Hmph. First of all, the district is an inhabited place, not a static image. Accommodating people, and kids, is okay. Secondly, nothing about Paseo Nuevo looks like authentic California Spanish or Spanish Colonial Revival. There's a Spanish "style," but it's been modernized and greatly expanded in scale. The best big Spanish Colonial Revival in SB is the county courthouse, and it's quite a different scale from Paseo Nuevo. Most of the fountains of the old days were really basins of aqueducts set up to provide water, so they were low and accessible by bucket. We see such fountains, now purely decorative, all over town. Perhaps among the grandiose Spanish Colonial architecture of Mexico City or Lima, this columnar "fountain" structure would be more appropriate.
COMMENT 366066	2013-01-22 10:04 AM
It's weird and looks like some esoteric salute to the male organ.
CORKY	2013-01-22 11:34 AM
We had this discussion recently. Yes, it looks like a giant penis.
COMMENT 366161P	2013-01-22 12:49 PM
There's a statue of a naked woman with wings that is supposed to go atop this…um… erection. Where's Neal Graffy? Neal? He has a copy of the photo, I believe, and knows the history of the woman depicted. Something to do with old SB films and the like. I personally loathe this paean to the male organ. Not that I don't appreciate male beauty, in all its shapes and forms. However, this particular structure is completely out of place.
COMMENT 366162	2013-01-22 12:50 PM
Still waiting for someone to explain how a column-shaped fountain is phallic. I guess anything column is now a penis?
COMMENT 366174	2013-01-22 01:15 PM
Just saw the area, I think it's nicer as a place to sit now that the fountain is out of the way. It's still nice to hear the water sounds. I thought it was a column, "penis" didn't cross my mind at all.
COMMENT 366255	2013-01-22 03:41 PM
The big phallus is as UGLY AS SIN and the old fountain was beautiful. Why on Earth would anybody spend thousands of dollars to mess that up? Shameful, just shameful. What a waste.
COMMENT 366269	2013-01-22 04:07 PM
Best Penis Statue in the City! Hands down i give it 4/5 tugs!

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