A Fourth Whale Will Swim on Iconic South End Building
With the construction of two Troy Boston apartment towers in the South End last summer, a Boston landmark was removed from the view of Southeast Expressway commuters.
The mural of three killer whales splashing in the surf, which had greeted drivers on I-93 since the late ’90s, can still be seen at the right angle, but a clear view became a casualty of new development and a changing neighborhood. (That whale mural actually replaced an older one, which was originally installed in 1989, according to Bryce Grefe, who owns the Planet Self Storage building that hosts the sea creatures.)
Now, a fourth whale is being painted on the side of Planet Self Storage. You still won’t be able to see it very well from the highway; the latest whale will instead face the Ink Block development—the new residential and retail space on the former site of the Boston Herald building.
National Development, the developer behind Ink Block, commissioned Brookline graffiti artist Tyson Andree to spray-paint the new mural on a 15-foot-high by 68-foot-long section of Planet Self Storage’s northern wall. Andree was expected to finish the mural Saturday afternoon.
Another of Andree’s pieces is on display in the lobby of one of Ink Block’s buildings. Andree’s work was introduced to National by Adam Adelson, director of nearby Adelson Gallieries, which represents Andree. National and Andree declined to say what Andree is being paid.
The wall that will be hosting the new whale used to be yellow, and “a bit loud for a residential community,’’ Grefe said. He said his company “lost a lot of visibility’’ due to the Troy Boston towers going up in front of the whales, but that it didn’t really affect business—it wasn’t as if the mural pulled drivers from the highway to the storage company, he said. In fact, Grefe said that all of the new housing in the neighborhood has been good for business, as the units at the local developments are “all pretty small.’’
In a post on Ink Block’s website, Ted Tye, managing partner at National Development, said that the mural exhibited the talent and creativity of the neighborhood.
“Art is integrated into the design of Ink Block on every level,’’ he said. “We are honored to be able to support the work of an artist like Tyson, as we share a passion for this creative neighborhood, which attracted us to invest here in the first place.’’
The mural is loosely based on a 2014 work by Andree called The Sole Controller, which currently hangs in the Ink Block lobby. The new piece will show an abstract sea mammal—a departure from the building’s literal depictions of whales. But Andree said he feels the mural is connected to the neighborhood not only by the aquatic subject matter but also by the way it references the kind of art that would have been seen there in ages past.
“Before there were any galleries … the street art is what you would look at,’’ he said.
The original whale mural has been largely blocked off from highway drivers by the Troy Boston apartment towers. This photo from last spring shows that process beginning.
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