Work started this week on the very first part of the Financial District Macy's Fortress's major reinvention at The Bloc open-air shopping complex: the nearly impenetrable Eighth Street side of the shopping center, which mostly serves as an entrance/exit for cars and delivery trucks, is getting a set of permanent murals by San-Francisco-based artist Chris Lux and LA team Sumi Ink Club. The impressive renderings of The Bloc never show the Eighth Street side of the project, because it was apparently "logistically impractical" to add stores along the stretch or otherwise open it up, according to broker/blogger Brigham Yen, who adds that the art has "already made walking down 8th Street a much more interesting and dynamic experience for the pedestrian."
Lux began painting the first of two works this week, at Eighth Street's intersections with Hope and Flower, and Sumi Ink Club will start on its big mural in the middle of the block next week. The colorful, cartoony illustrations you can see here in Lux's in-progress work are intended to reflect the diversity of LA.
The Eighth Street facade could also get a few, "possibly neon" signs advertising stores in the renovated complex, and—most intriguingly—"parts of the upper brick walls [could be] completely ripped out, exposing the spiral ramps that take cars up to the parking structure."
· Colorful New Murals Sprucing Up The Bloc's Blank Walls in Downtown LA [BY]
· Hard to Believe: This is What FiDi's Macy's Fortress Will Become [Curbed LA]
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