Mural Incognito

Before...


...and After

This week's Downtown News shares the frustration of artist Kent Twitchell, whose famous 80-foot-tall "Harbor Freeway Overture" mural along the 110 Freeway (if you've ever driven north on the 110, which I assume you have, you've seen it) is now hidden by fast-growing eucalyptus trees:

"It's a curiosity that that would happen. I kept hearing they were going to fix the trees," said Twitchell.

Completed in 1994, the three-panel mural on the western side of the 7+Fig parking structure depicts 11 larger-than-life musicians from the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (LACO), with instruments in hand, and one of the organization's significant donors. It is amongst the most noticeable artworks in Los Angeles, primarily due to its high visibility to northbound drivers on the 110.

Today, however, only the top quarter of it can be seen from the freeway. The rest is behind a veil of dense braches, leaves and bare tree trunks, some reaching to the garage's upper floors.

A question of who's responsible for trimming the trees -- LACO or the garage's owners -- has kept the mural from view. Both sides say a resolution is imminent, and we'll soon see the giant bearded guy and 80-foot tall woman with violin again soon.

Also in the Downtown News: The impending disappearance of Robinsons-May means two Macy's will soon sit down the street from one another.

This time next year, Downtown workers sneaking off to the mall for some lunchtime Christmas shopping might find themselves with a tough choice. Do they go to Macy's? Or Macy's?

The situation is arising because the Robinsons-May at the 7+Fig mall is on the national list of department stores that will be turned into a Macy's come February 2006. The move, if executed, would put that 125,000-square-foot Macy's, at Seventh and Figueroa streets, a short walk from the 266,000-square-foot Macy's West in Macy's Plaza, at 750 W. Seventh St.