Gigantic mural to create ‘living wall’ on Wheeling apartment complex
The concrete facade of a Wheeling apartment complex’s parking garage soon will become an enormous artistic canvas.
The village board on Monday approved a plan to allow a mural at Uptown 500’s multistory parking structure, 500 W. Dundee Road. The yet-to-be-designed piece will be painted by Rockford artist Brett Whitacre.
Whitacre’s colorful work can be found in public spaces in Rosemont, St. Charles, Waukegan, Chicago and elsewhere. He’s working on a mural in Rockford right now.
The Wheeling mural will cover nearly 2,800 square feet of the garage’s facade, documents indicate. Village officials will approve the design before Whitacre begins painting.
The artistic goal of the project — which village officials proposed to the company that owns Uptown 500 — is to turn the existing gray wall into something resembling a living wall.
An actual wall of plant life was part of the original plan for Uptown 500, but that turned out to be too expensive to implement, Village Manager Jon Sfondilis said in an email. As such, officials think a two-dimensional interpretation is appropriate.
“We’re pretty excited,” Sfondilis said.
In a telephone interview Tuesday, Whitacre said he’s already visited the site to scope it out. He envisions landscapes and “larger-than-life” foliage.
“The challenge will be making an image work on it, because we’ve got all these interruptions every 10 feet,” he said, referring to the horizontal open spaces that break up the facade.
Whitacre will be paid up to $50,000 for his work, with the money coming from village funds generated by taxes on properties in that part of town. The board approved the expenditure last month.
Trustee Ray Lang voiced support for the project Monday night.
“This is going to add to the community,” he said.
Lang questioned why officials allowed the current concrete facade rather than insisting on something more attractive. He suggested officials consider asking Whitacre to paint even more of the structure.
Sfondilis said he’s spoken with Whitacre about expanding the scope of the commission and said options will be explored — along with associated price increases.
The garage is west of Uptown 500’s residential and retail area. The mural will be especially visible to drivers headed east on Dundee Road toward Uptown 500.
The piece is expected to be completed by Sept. 1, documents indicate.
A prominent part of the Dundee Road commercial and multifamily residential corridor, the six-story Uptown 500 includes 321 apartments and 10,500 square feet of commercial space. The first suburban Rosebud Steakhouse is being constructed on the ground floor and should open this fall, Sfondilis said.