The Amarillo City Council recently held a first reading for a resolution that would allow a large, Route 66-themed “story wall” near downtown.
The Amarillo Globe-News reported the interactive mural — titled “66 Stories from Route 66” — will be on an underpass by Transformation Park to better connect downtown to Sixth Street (aka Route 66). Its creators are collaborating with PBS and National Geographic Magazine.
Below is a prototype of the mural, though a final design will be presented later.
According to city documents, the mural will be 200 feet long and up to 16 feet tall.
During the March 24 presentation, Shawn Kennedy, executive director of Blank Spaces, said they had already completed 125 murals in Amarillo and paid $108,000 to area students.
“This will be the largest mural in the Texas Panhandle,” Kennedy told the council. He added that the traffic count was 6,282 of average daily vehicles traveling the area where they plan to place the mural, which is estimated to be around more than 400 feet in total size. […]
“This mural is more than a mural and will include 66 stories collected from residents who remember Route 66, and its charm and uniqueness at the Mother Road throughout the ’40s to the 70s, when it was decommissioned,” Kennedy said. “The viewer can look through his phone camera and connect with a National Geographic site to see stories embedded in the graphic.”
Among those interviewed for the project is longtime Route 66 booster and artist Bob “Crocodile” Lile.
A final design for the privately funded mural will be presented to the city on April 14. The hope is to finish the mural by mid-June.
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