Murals Deliver a Powerful Message

A vibrant mural is a fitting complement to the newly renovated Castle Argyle in Hollywood, California.

Once a high-end spot where movie royalty hung their hats, the building has been rehabbed and converted into affordable housing for seniors by HumanGood and its affiliate, Beacon Development Group.

“There was a location in the front where we did a structural addition and added a new wall. It sang to me that this was a moment that we can celebrate the history of the building and the area,” says Scott Sullivan, one of the founders of Relativity Architects.

Artist Roberto Biaggi of Robi Design + Build was brought in to create a mural that captures the glamour of old Hollywood. Named “Overlooking the City,” the mural is made out of broken ceramic tile pieces and features the Castle Argyle as part of the city scene. “It’s like a little movie inside a movie,” says Biaggi, who also made it a point to be inclusive with different faces in the mural.

Art at affordable housing communities, he says, delivers a powerful message: “Anybody can have art … art is for everybody.”

It can also have important ripple effects, such as spurring other neighborhood improvements. “Art can be like a bomb,” Biaggi says. “That’s what we’re trying to do with this art, throw a little bomb of good, and it usually snowballs in the right direction.”

Sullivan says he includes public art at affordable housing developments at the right opportunities. Those openings don’t surface at every project, and not every development needs a giant mural, but when it does work, it can uplift a property and the surrounding neighborhood.

“They are always places where we need more than just the built work,” he says. “We need more imagination and more splash.”

Art can distinguish a building and serve as a wayfinding tool, connecting residents and the larger community to a development. In some instances, residents have even helped create the art.

Leading affordable housing developer and owner Community Development Partners (CDP) has featured prominent murals at a majority of its communities.

“Incorporating art is a powerful way to engage with residents and the surrounding community,” says CEO Eric Paine. “The placemaking impact is a clear winning investment.”

Affordable housing developers have to be conscientious about their budgets, but adding a mural or other public art can be done at a minor fraction of the overall development costs while adding significantly to the pride of place for residents of a development, he says.

In some cases, local sources such as a regional arts council may even be able to provide a grant or other funding. However, the timing can be a challenge. In addition, large outdoor murals may have to go through public review and gain city approvals.

CDP and the Native American Youth and Family Center along with the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians developed the 59-unit Nesika Illahee project to help meet the needs of the underserved Native community in Portland, Oregon. A large colorful mural of a Native Siletz elder is featured on the building, and other culturally relevant art is displayed at the development.

The art provides a grounding connection for the residents, many of whom are Native Americans.

David Baker, founding principal of David Baker Architects, has also incorporated murals and public art into a number of the developments he has designed over the years. In some cases, he has teamed with organizations that work with developmentally disabled artists.

“I think it’s so important to have art,” he says, noting that many projects are so industrial and limited by building codes. “… The art is something that is humane and human. It changes people’s day-to-day lives to have art.”

Unfortunately art can be seen as optional or may not be in a budget, notes Baker and his colleagues in their book “9 Ways to Make Housing for People.” They recommend thinking about art early in the design process and setting aside a budget and creating a plan for an art program to help ensure it will be there to add a final touch to a building.

Here’s a look at several recent murals at affordable housing developments.

Rise Above is an innovative, multidimensional public artwork at Fairview Heights, a 101-unit affordable housing community in Inglewood, California. Developed by Linc Housing and National Community Renaissance, the project includes 50 units for people who have experienced homelessness. The mural features vibrant colors and imagery of joining hands, which depict strength in togetherness, diversity, and inclusion. Viewers can hold up their phones to experience an augmented reality. They’ll see the hands open up to reveal images of culture, history, and heritage. Poppies—California’s state flower and a native species of Inglewood—grow and bloom, and leaves blow in the wind while a ribbon swirls around, leading the viewer through the story of Inglewood. Viewers can also swipe to another “documentary” layer to see and hear community members talk about what makes Inglewood a great place to live and work. Ryan “Yanoe” Sarfati and Eric “Zoueh” Skotnes, known as Yanoe X Zoueh, are the artists.

Inspiring murals are a featured element of Casa Adelante—2600 Folsom, a 127-unit affordable housing development for families and transitional-aged youth in San Francisco. Developers Mission Economic Development Agency and Chinatown Community Development Center long had the idea to bring the arts to the space, especially with its proximity to the arts corridor along 16^th Street near Mission Street. Native San Franciscan and renowned muralist Jessica Sabogal titled her work “Sobreviviremos: A Portrait of Yolanda López and Tribute to the1969 organizations working toward liberation and self-determination: Los Siete de la Raza, The Black Panther Party, and the Indians of All Tribes.” She created a towering portrait of the Mission’s own Yolanda López, a Chicanx famed artist with works focusing on the experiences of Mexican-American and working-class women, often challenging ethnic stereotypes. Additionally, the murals feature a black panther and slogans from past social justice movements.

Artist Roberto Biaggi elevates the interior lobby of the Castle Argyle Apartments with an abstract piece that complements the building’s art deco design. The work is named “1928,” a nod to when the building was constructed.

Inside at Legacy at Alazan, a modern affordable apartment community on the West Side of San Antonio, is a striking mural by contemporary Chicano artist Alex Rubio. Known for drawing inspiration from the city’s West Side history, the mural incorporates iconic images that have impacted the neighborhood. These include the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center and the Guadal Café, important cultural community spaces in the city. The colorful depiction of his beloved community was inspired by the people, places, and culture that shaped his adolescence. Throughout the development by The NRP Group, other pieces of Rubio’s work can be found hanging on the walls.

Artist Toma Villa showcases the sacredness of a safe home in a vibrant two-story mural at the Nesika Illahee affordable housing community in Portland. Community Development Partners co-developed the 59-unit project with the Native American Youth and Family Center. The team believes Nesika Illahee is the first housing complex to receive a Department of Housing and Urban Development Indian Housing Block Grant to build housing and establish a preference for Native families in an urban, off-reservation setting.

Artist Solomon Enos welcomes people into EAH Housing’s Nohona Hale development in Honolulu with a colorful mural. “The reasons I chose the petroglyph motif relates to the nature of community, and to this aesthetic which my ancestors chose to reflect their world with exquisite minimalism,” Enos says. “Add to this, it gave me a way to connect to the historic street network motif that runs up the building, bringing both designs symbolically together.”

A series of mural panels by artist Gabriel Eng-Goetz distinguish the Willard Street Apartments in Durham, North Carolina. Toward the end of the mixed-use community’s construction, the DHIC and Self-Help development team and the city created a diverse group of stakeholders to select an artist to create a multi-panel mural facing the neighboring transit station. The panel selected Eng-Goetz, a local artist, who then assembled an inclusive advisory committee to guide in the creation of the mural. The final art connects the native history of the area and received support of the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation. In addition, the building’s common areas feature original paintings from local artists paying tribute to significant individuals and locations from Durham’s civil rights history.