Revered anti-gentrification mural in the Mission to be painted over with new piece

Wally Gobetz/Flickr Wally Gobetz/Flickr Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Revered anti-gentrification mural in the Mission to be painted over with new piece 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

"Generator," the adored anti-gentrification mural at 18th St. and Lexington in San Francisco's Mission district, has been painted over.

However, the mural, by Andrew Schoultz and Aaron Noble, which had been displayed on the wall on the side of Lexington Standard for 14 years, wasn't a victim to building ownership changing hands or to any other symptom of gentrification. Rather, as Curbed reports, the piece is being painted over due to dry rot.

Luckily, the Standard's owners, Andrew Soernsen and Mark Lee Morris, are set on preserving the wall space's artistic element. On Monday, artists Schoultz and Noble announced in a release that they will be painting a new piece on the recently cleared canvas.

The mural at 18th and Lexington is gone. White primer paint and scaffolding. #sf #sfMission pic.twitter.com/gCZdFXZBFM — Dolores Clean (@DPClean) July 21, 2016

"We are very happy that so many people enjoyed our piece and it achieved so much notoriety," Schoultz said in the release. "However as neighborhoods change and transition, so must their painted walls."

The new mural will again address the issue of gentrification, and utilize some of the themes of the first artwork, including flying birds.

As owners Soernsen and Morris say, the newly commissioned work will "depict a flock of birds, referencing the quick gentrification of San Francisco, and the apparent soaring departure of the hard-working middle and lower income artists, restaurant workers, childcare workers & bartenders, etc."

The artists will begin working on the new mural this month.

Alyssa Pereira is a staff writer for SFGATE. Follow her here on Twitter.