New tool protects Philly’s murals from demolition or development

The 4,000 vividly hued and often-dramatic murals on its streets have given Philadelphia a reputation as the "Best City for Street Art" in America, and even the ”Mural Capital of the World."

“Philly is the world’s largest outdoor public art gallery,” said Chad Eric Smith, the communications director of the nonprofit Mural Arts program.

But at least a half-dozen of these large-scale, community-driven works of public mural art are lost annually to demolition, development, or both.

“And those are just the ones we know about,” said Jane Golden, founder and director of Mural Arts. For 40 years, the nonprofit has engaged with local artists, building owners, and residents to create murals.

Mural Arts now has a new tool to help prevent these treasured local landmarks from being torn down — or disappearing from public view due to construction of other buildings: a preservation easement.

Designed by West Philly developer Ryan Spak, Mural Arts’ new voluntary preservation easement obligates a building owner and successive owners to preserve a mural on the property or to provide for its replacement if the building must be demolished.

The previous method of preserving murals ”doesn’t have any real teeth,” Spak said. “But the preservation easement we’ve developed is a template to encourage building owners and developers to do the right thing.”

The availability of these voluntary easements during negotiations between an owner or developer and Mural Arts to create a mural can also encourage owners to re-create a mural close to the site of one being removed or obscured, he said.

Smith called the preservation easement agreement “a perfect example of socially responsible development” and a tool suitable for use elsewhere in the country.

As Mural Arts grew in the 1980s and ’90s, its public art projects proliferated in parts of North, West, and South Philly that hadn’t seen much residential development in decades.

The eye-popping, Philly-centric images of Black civil rights pioneers, beloved athletes, entertainment celebrities, and local heroes reflected suggestions from residents of neighborhoods, some of them with little ready access to public art.

But in recent years a surge of construction in neighborhoods close to or within Center City has claimed even beloved, high-profile murals.

A mural by artist Marcus Akinlana, titled ARTsolutely Awesome North Philly, Yeah! at 15th and Parrish Streets, and a tribute mural to LGBTQ activist Gloria Casarez, by artist Michelle Angela Ortiz, at 12th and Spruce Streets in Center City, are among the best-known casualties. They were lost to construction of new buildings in 2016 and 2020, respectively.

As residential development continues, “our cherished murals face a significant challenge,” Golden said, urging neighbors who notice construction activity near a mural to use the “mural maintenance” notification form on her organization’s website.

Philly mural artists Kala Hagopian and Gabe Tiberino both have seen their work obliterated by demolition or development.

“Among the reasons preserving murals is really important is all the efforts that go into making them,” said Hagopian, who is creating a citywide series of murals on environmental themes. “Artists put their entire being into this work, and communities see themselves reflected in these murals.”

Said Tiberino, who worked with Akinlana on the North Philly project: “These murals aren’t just paint on a wall. They’re monuments. So it was terrible for that one to be knocked down.

“I’ve seen too many Philly murals disappear,” Tiberino said. “This protection is long overdue,” he said.

Mural Arts has nurtured local communities as well as local artists, forging connections among neighbors in the process of proposing, planning, and building a mural.

Sometimes the finished product can raise eyebrows, as happened last year in Washington Square West.

But Golden and others said murals over time tend to be adopted as handy when giving directions or as a symbol of a particular area. Local residents also become protective of the murals; Golden said calls from locals have alerted Mural Arts to potential removal projects.

“The idea of a preservation easement can have a restrictive quality to it, which concerns folks in my development community,” Spak said.

“But we don’t find art to be an impediment.” he said. “And there’s value in the overall feeling a mural project creates in a neighborhood.”

Philly may not be in danger of running out of murals — Golden said her organization oversees 50 or more “installations” annually — but the destruction of a beloved piece hardly endears a neighborhood to additional development.

“We find these murals incredibly important to our buildings,” said Spak. Hagopian created one of the murals in her “Healing Medicine” series for Spak’s project near 49th Street and Baltimore Avenue.

“Murals like ‘Healing Medicine’ can make a building,” Spak said.

In a post on her website, Hagopian said the preservation efforts by Mural Arts and Spak “are essential in ensuring that both historic and contemporary artworks remain visible, relevant, and celebrated” in the city.

“Together, we are not only creating new works, but also honoring and maintaining the vibrant artistic story of Philadelphia,” she said.