Gentrification won't kill Downtown's Calle de la Eternidad (Eternity Street) mural on Broadway's north end, according to City Councilmember Jose Huizar, who announced it will be recreated after the 101 year old building it lives on is renovated. Developer David Gray--behind the Judson and Orpheum Lofts--is adding creative office space and ground floor retail to the building once known as the Zobel Building, at Broadway and Fourth Street. As part of that work, Gray is removing a facade added in the fifties that enshrined the "Graysons" department store name on the exterior, obscuring the building's Broadway-facing windows. Artist Johanna Poethig created the huge Calle de la Eternidad mural (it's Broadway's original moniker) in the early 1990s as part of the city's Neighborhood Pride program, KCET reports. Gray wants to bring the windows back, which obviously requires that the mural go (taking it down starts tonight). Working with the mural restoration organization SPARC, the piece has been digitally scanned and will be recreated on the building's south side after the structure is rehabbed. "The digital file of the mural assembled by SPARC will be restored by the original artist ... and then put on a canvas retouched again by hand," according to Huizar's press release, which notes the restoration method traces back to the renaissance.
· 'Calle de la Eternidad' Mural on Broadway is About Moving Inspiration [KCET]
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