Aurora, stainless steel fountain and sculpture at Bayside Plaza in San Francisco, United States

Aurora is an outdoor fountain and sculpture in stainless steel, completed by Ruth Asawa in 1986 and installed at Bayside Plaza, 188 Embarcadero at Howard Street. Its form is a large ring of angular, faceted metal panels folded into points and ridges, dark gray and black with a lighter sheen on the raised folds, and an irregular layered inner edge framing the view through its open center.

Aurora was completed in 1986 by sculptor Ruth Asawa, who was born in California to Japanese immigrant parents and is known for woven wire works and public commissions in San Francisco. The stainless steel fountain stands at Bayside Plaza, 188 Embarcadero at Howard Street, on the city's waterfront.

Ruth Asawa's fountain stands on Bayside Plaza, a public space at 188 Embarcadero near Howard Street where office workers and passers-by stop beside the water. The work is a fountain as much as a sculpture, so the sound of falling water is part of what visitors notice there.

Aurora stands outdoors at Bayside Plaza, 188 Embarcadero at Howard Street, on the San Francisco waterfront. The fountain and sculpture can be viewed at any hour from the surrounding plaza, and the stainless steel panels catch daylight from different angles as you walk around the ring. Expect wind off the bay.

Aurora is a fountain as well as a sculpture: water issues from the stainless steel form, which Asawa folded into faceted, ring-like panels rather than casting it. Look for the pointed ridges where the metal plates meet, which catch and scatter daylight across the dark surface.