‘Broad City’ Illustrator Curates Brooklyn’s Hottest Marathon Mural Project

Sarah Cascone August 17, 2015 ShareShare This Article

Brooklyn’s Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park just might be the city’s best-looking construction site, thanks to a new, 820-foot-long mural project curated by Mike Perry, the illustrator responsible for Broad City‘s quirky animated intro sequence.

The Pacific Park art project features work from Perry, along with nine other Brooklyn-based artists on Dean Street in Prospect Heights. The murals were all created over the weekend during a marathon painting session/block party held between 11:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. on Saturday.

Archie Lee Coats’s mural for Pacific Park Arts.
Photo: Pacific Park Arts.

Perry, who has lived in the neighborhood since moving to New York in 2004, sees the work as a way to give back to the community. “I think the thing about murals is that they have the ability to pull you out of your routine,” he told Brooklyn Magazine. “You walk by something everyday and all of a sudden you see a bit of color…”

The 22-acre work site has been surrounded by a 16-foot-tall wall since the fall, and the murals were installed as part of an environmental impact agreement between the state and the developer, Greenland Forest City Partners.

Developers estimate the barriers will be in place for at least two years, giving the community plenty of time to enjoy the work of Hisham Akira Bharoocha, Morgan Blair, Josh Cochran, Thomas Colligan, Archie Lee Coates, Jennifer Maravillas, Eddie Perrote, Naomi Reis, and Edward Ubiera.

However, some community members aren’t exactly pleased with the overall project, which involves the construction of 6,430 rental and condo units on the other side of the fence. “The local community is likely to be exposed to adverse construction impacts and the risks they entail for at least twenty years,” the Barclays Center Impact Zone Alliance stated in an open letter, according to DNAinfo.

Units will range from $565,000 to $7 million, the Wall Street Journal reports.

But hey, at least the view is nice for now.