A giant statue of a nude woman that debuted at Burning Man 2015 will not be installed in Union Square as planned, as it is apparently a risk for the plaza’s tiles, though there is a Plan B afoot to bring it to the Embarcadero Plaza.

We received word in August that sculptor Marco Cochrane’s 45-foot-tall nude woman sculpture called R-Evolution was expected to be placed up in Union Square this winter, after the same work had displayed publicly to positive reviews at Burning Man 2015, in Petaluma, Miami Beach, and the Las Vegas Strip. There was even an official unveiling scheduled for February 6, to coincide with a Downtown First Thursdays party. Though the plug was pulled on that less than a week before the event, because of some sort of unexplained “unforeseen engineering complexities.”  


And now the plug is pulled on the statue going up at Union Square any time. The Examiner reports the R-Evolution display at Union Square is canceled, due to concerns that the weight of the piece could potentially crack the granite tiles of the plaza itself.

"Due to the delicate nature of the plaza's tiles, and required positioning of the statue, Union Square is unable to host R-Evolution,” Union Square Alliance CEO Marisa Rodriguez said in a statement to the Examiner.

According to artist Marco Cochrane’s website, the “​​sculpture with base is approximately 13,000 lbs.,” but it also requires steel plate anchoring that adds an additional 16,000 pounds. So yes, it is a heavy piece.

There’s still some hope, though, that R-Evolution could have a tour of duty in downtown San Francisco. The Examiner adds that the SF Recreation and Parks Department says the piece could go up at the Embarcadero Plaza, the same park that’s home to the angular Vaillancourt Fountain.  

“We think the new location is perfect and we are excited to move forward with the process,” Rec and Parks spokesperson Tamara Aparton told the Examiner. That proposal will go to the SF Arts Commission sometime in early March.

Related: Giant Nude Female Figure Likely to Be Installed In Union Square This Winter [SFist]

Image: Marco Cochrane