“Because it’s such a large-scale work, every time we wanted to step back and see what we were doing, we had to take the lift all the way up and then take the elevator down and walk half a block up the street to look at it,” Pagac said.

The mural looms large over the upper-middle-class U Street corridor dotted by coffee shops and happy hour hot spots.

“As you get close to this intersection at 14th Street and U, that’s when you see more of the coffee shops and sports bars, and the mural kind of leads you to this,” said Byron Tonic, Elysium Fourteen’s community director.

“With this one being as tall as it is, you can walk blocks away and turn around and it’s looming over this part of the city,” added Pagac, who completed his first MuralsDC project, “Planting Roots,” in 2017 at the three-story Ketcham Elementary School.

The next year, he painted his version of the Buddhist tale “Four Harmonious Friends” on the side of an apartment building near the Smithsonian Zoo.

"This is Joe’s third consecutive project with MuralsDC and he's known as one of the easiest and most flexible artists to work with," Geldart said. "He’s fearless, talented and doesn't mind heights — three important qualities in an outdoor muralist.”