Yes, murals! Maybe it's time San Antonio invites its own Robert Wyland Whaling Wall. Although vertical and narrow is not necessarily the easiest aspect to use for his giant whale themes, the tropical blue color would make a perfect complementary color for all the beige walls, brown bricks, and pale terracotta of downtown and on the Canopy building.
Here is a rare vertical Whaling Wall in Honolulu:
(Image found on
Bender Originals)
Imagine all the photographic opportunities to contrast a deep blue sea mural against the historic revival architecture of the Drury Plaza Hotel or the Aztec Theater. If Dallas and South Padre Island can both have Whaling Walls, why not San Antonio?
Honolulu's Hilton Hawaiian Village's aptly named Rainbow Tower is certainly not famous for its architecture, but it has become an icon for its colorful beachfront rainbow mural:
(Image from
Hilton Hotels & Resorts)
Surely, San Antonio, the city of Fiesta, has colors like these to spare.
Perhaps easier for the tall canvas are some of Mona Caron's towering weed murals, such as this richly green one in Quito, Ecuador:
(Image on Pinterest originally from
Mona Macron online portfolio)
Bedazzle it with some colored glass tile mosaic to lightly shimmer in the Texas sun, and it would go from a bleak corner of lost urban opportunity dreck to a treasured jeweled landmark.
East Asia is already installing giant, hologram-like, moving 3D billboards, such as the Shinjuku cat in Tokyo:
(Images from cross_s_vision and Rico_vl found on
boredpanda)
Ah well, there was a time when San Antonio, like many other cities, knew how to make urbanistically humane building corners with a lot less money and technology. That urban design and architectural discipline has sorely slipped such that we have to try and imagine unlikely mitigations like this.
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