The refurbishment of the Generations Fountain west of Leavey Library began in late December 2023 and ceased at the end of January. The 21-foot-tall bronze fountain, installed in April 2009, turned black because of time and weathering. It has since been restored to gold after Facilities Planning and Management, the Fisher Museum of Art, and the Rosa Lowinger and Associates Conservation of Art and Architecture collaborated to restore the fountain to its original state. 

According to Stephanie Kowalick, the director of collections, compliance and exhibitions at Fisher, the change in color was caused by a myriad of factors, mostly due to the fact that the fountain was made out of bronze.

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“That’s just from time in the sun … The patina of a bronze will change,” Kowalick said. “It is also a fountain, there’s water, chemicals in the water, things like that. There’s the elements that’s outside, there’s birds … there are a lot of factors that create that discoloration over time.”

Patina is a discoloration that occurs in copper or bronze when the materials are subject to oxidation, weather or other extreme conditions. Kowalick compared the tarnishing of the fountain to the Statue of Liberty turning from copper to green over time. 

Donors Bettina Deininger and John Deininger initially funded the Generations Fountain to pay homage to the three generations of their family who attended USC, and to create a monument for Trojan families and legacy students. The sculptor of the fountain was Aristides Burton Demetrios — best known for making the White Memorial Fountain at Stanford University — who passed away Dec. 12, 2021. Demetrios’ widow, Ilene Nagel, visited the Generations Fountain and upon seeing the discoloration, contacted the provost to begin restorations. Bettina Deininger and Nagel both provided funding to restore and maintain the Generations Fountain in the future.   

Kowalick began planning the restoration process over a year ago. Kowalick and Juan Rojas, the USC Museums public art and collections facilities manager and Fisher chief preparator, met with the FMS team and RLA Conservation at Generations Fountain to come up with a plan of action. 

“[The goal was] both to return it back to that sort of shinier look that it was originally in and then also figure out how to keep that and maintain [it],” Kowalick said. “[It could be maintained by] putting either some sort of protective coating on the sculpture that doesn’t change the color of the sculpture, like buffing it back to the shine and then they put what they call [a] clear coat on it.”

Restoration officially began with cutting the power to the fountain and draining it. The conservation team then cleaned the surface of the fountain and conducted testing to figure out how to properly remove its flaking protective coat. After using a mechanical process to remove the corrosion, the team cleaned the surfaces again, then removed the remaining corrosion by hand. The final touch was adding six layers of an ultraviolet-resistant lacquer coating and three coats of wax, topped off by a final buffing. 

Students familiar with the fountain were quick to take notice of the change in its coloration. Sophia Perez, a senior majoring in political science, said she recognized a difference but did not know what the cause was. 

“It was in the rain and I was like, ‘Oh, maybe just in the rain it has a different light to it,’ and I thought it was a placebo effect because of the rain,” Perez said. “I noticed because this is my walk home … and I genuinely felt like the rain cleaned it … I did notice it though, and I think it looks great.”

Students also commented on how the refurbishment changed their perception of the fountain. Eric Tang, a graduate student studying cinematic arts, film and television production, said he preferred the gold shine over the previous black. 

“I think it looks a lot brighter in the day which means that [it’s] less of an eyesore to look at during the day,” Tang said. “If I were to shoot it with a camera, it does look like it provides a lot of depth with the way that it’s structured.”

The Generations Fountain is situated next to West 34th Street near the Dundon-Berchtold University Club, surrounded by trees and greenery. One student noted the interplay between the fountain and its surroundings. 

“It seems to stand out a bit more against the green and it does seem to blend a bit more with the red background,” said Sofia Chamberlain, a senior majoring in biological sciences as well as violin performance. “I like the swirls on it. I do like the contour, it does seem to come in and out. And it does seem to blend in with the ways the leaves are blowing right now with the wind. So it does add some character to the campus.”

Still, the change before and after the refurbishment of the Generations Fountain remains startling to Kowalick. The sharp contrast before and after the refurbishment was shocking, despite the fact that she helped plan out the entire process. 

“I had no idea [the fountain] was supposed to look like that … It’s surprising on one hand because I had been looking at that thing for so long and not really noticed how different it was meant to look, and now I’m just impressed that they were able to even achieve that,” Kowalick said.