Mural on Biden Expressway rejected by Scranton Historical Architecture Review Board proceeds apace anyway

Jim Lockwood, The Times-Tribune, Scranton, Pa.
·3 min read

Oct. 28—SCRANTON — A new mural along the Biden Expressway proceeds apace, despite getting rejected by the city's Historical Architecture Review Board.

The HARB rejection Oct. 12 is an advisory opinion that did not prevent Lackawanna County from having an artist start the painting last week and progress this week.

HARB's denial of "a certificate of appropriateness" for the mural gets forwarded to Scranton City Council for upholding or overturning. Council has not yet taken up the matter.

The county in August hired John Park, an artist from Los Angeles, to paint the new murals, with the outbound side first and inbound side to occur next year.

During the Oct. 12 meeting, some HARB members raised various concerns about the large, colorful murals to replace the former murals that since 2006 covered the retaining walls. The old murals recently were painted over to make way for the new artworks.

HARB concerns included that the new murals would be too cartoonish in style, too harsh in color contrasts and too generic in subject matter to serve as the gateway to downtown Scranton for many years to come.

"I would like to see it a little more painterly than cartoon," HARB Chairman Richard Leonori said.

The murals will cover more than 12,000 square feet and reflect common seasonal activities — fishing, skiing, high school football, swimming and fall foliage.

"It's feeling a little anonymous to the region," HARB member Michael Muller said. "This could be anywhere. I wish the subject matter were a little more site specific to our region."

Leonori wanted the county to make Park available to HARB to hear their concerns and hopefully tweak the mural.

But county Deputy Chief of Staff Traci Harte rejected that notion.

"I am not comfortable having the artist come before you," Harte said, telling the members to email her with any suggestions for changes.

Furthermore, Harte told HARB it has no say over the mural, and "Our agreement is with PennDOT, so I'm really only here as a courtesy."

Muller said, "I would be interested in talking about subject matter, but I don't know if that ship has sailed," Muller said.

Harte replied, "It's sailed."

HARB member Conrad Bosley also said HARB should not get into trying to change designs or color schemes.

"Since we're dealing with an artist, we should accept it as the artist depicted in the presentation," Bosley said.

HARB then voted 2-1 to reject a certificate of appropriateness for the mural, with Muller and member Katie Gilmartin voting for rejection and Bosley dissenting. Leonori, as chairman, did not vote.

HARB solicitor Daniel Penetar III said the next step is for him to file a report on the board's findings with council for it to consider whether to back or overrule HARB.

After the vote, the discussion continued. Leonori noted he and Muller co-designed the original mural.

"We entered that competition because we were afraid of what we were going to get," Leonori said. "I'm very sorry that we didn't fight to have it restored. I think it worked as a good image for a number of years and they simply didn't maintain it at all."

Muller said it's time for a mural change and the new design "may be nice, but it's not appropriate."

Electric City Television recorded the meeting and has it posted on YouTube.

Contact the writer: jlockwood@scrantontimes.com; 570-348-9100 x5185

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