Last week Conrad Benner, who runs the terrific graffiti/public art website Streets Dept., proposed that the historic, much-beloved PSFS building be festooned with an enormous mural. The logic? Philadelphia has the highest number of public murals in the country, but Omaha, Neb., has the largest mural. To encourage the city to change things in our favor, Benner posted a petition (yet. another. petition.) directed to Mayor Nutter:
And what a better place for the nation's largest public mural than on the back of the PSFS Building? Right in the middle of our skyline, and currently painted a boring black, the back of the PSFS Building is the ideal canvas for such a project. The PSFS building—famous in architectural circles and a Philadelphia icon—is now owned by the Loews Hotel Corporation, which preserved its historical details when converting it to a hotel in the late 1990s.
Benner quickly thought of Steve Powers, the artist who did the Love Letters series, as a good choice for the job, as well as another artist called NoseGo. And then illustrator/designer Mike Meulstee did a mock-up to demonstrate what a Powers/NoseGo mural on the building might look like.
When Benner posted it on his site, a few commenters were unimpressed—one of whom said something so weird and hilariously offensive, we can't post it here. But here's the comment we can post:
How are you going to get the city to allow a bunch of hipsters to vandalize a privately owned building? This is an extremely historic building and a part of Philadelphia's identity. To put a ridiculous mural on it would be a tragedy. And who will pay for this project? You? Oh no?you'll force Philadelphia taxpayers to foot the bill so you can feel good about yourself. You hipster dipshits should be ashamed of yourselves. Now this (just for fun, because of course it's not up to us or to Mayor Nutter):
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