2 massive Detroit murals are about to vanish from skyline. Here's why.

Two of Detroit’s largest public art pieces will soon be gone from the city's skyline.

A pair of towering 184-foot murals by street artist Shepard Fairey and brother-artist duo How & Nosm on the north side of the One Campus Martius building downtown will be permanently blocked from view as construction begins on an ambitious development project that will expand the footprint of the property and add the state’s tallest skyscraper next door.

The Shepard Fairey piece, in particular, was one of Detroit's most talked about — and visible — pieces of new public art in years.

The addition to One Campus Martius will create space for about 1,500 employees, but will put the murals out of commission as public art attractions. The pieces won’t be removed or destroyed, but the space where they exist will be filled in with construction materials.

The addition is part of a $2.15-billion development that includes the One Campus Martius addition as well as a trio of other projects — a $909-million, 912-foot skyscraper at the site of the former Hudson’s site; an $800-million high-rise mixed-use Monroe Block project running east along Campus Martius Park; and the restoration of the Book Building and Book Tower.

The $2.15-billion development spanning across multiple sites in downtown Detroit received about $618 million in tax incentives in May — roughly 15 percent of the cost over the next 30 years.

The projects are being helmed by real estate development juggernaut Bedrock, which originally commissioned the murals by Fairey in 2015 and How & Nosm in 2016. Both murals measure roughly 184 by 60 feet.

“Public art is one of the most important elements of creating a vibrant downtown,” a Bedrock spokesperson said in a statement. “As we continue the expansion of One Campus Martius, these murals will slowly be covered. After speaking with the artists, it was their wish to keep the art intact throughout construction.”

When it was first completed three years ago, Fairey’s mural was his largest to date.

The limited color palette of black, red and cream featured in the mural and prominent in his vast body of work is influenced by conceptual artist Barbara Kruger and Russian constructivist propaganda but visually married to a punk rock aesthetic.

At the center of the mural is one of his earliest creations: the signature “Obey Giant” design that originated in 1989 featuring the likeness of wrestler Andre the Giant. The wavy curves of lotus leaves, a peace sign and the scales of justice — all recurring imagery throughout Fairey’s work — round out the massive mural.

While Fairey is still best known for his ubiquitous “Hope” image of Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign, his time spent in Detroit became infamous in the seemingly endless debate of what is vandalism and what is art.

While he was in Detroit completing the mural in 2015, Fairey was accused of putting wheat-paste posters on buildings around town. The City of Detroit pursued charges against the artist in a case that caught the attention of national news outlets. The charges were eventually dismissed and the lengthy legal battle ended in a rejected appeal for the City of Detroit in August.

This past summer, Fairey returned to metro Detroit for a solo exhibition of his early work at the Cranbrook Art Museum.

How & Nosm are identical twin brothers Raoul and Davide Perre, who are known for their large-scale, graffiti-based murals that adorn city walls around the world. Employing reds, blacks and grays, their Detroit piece uses mesmerizing geometric patterns common throughout their work — but also a subtle nod to artist Alvin Loving, a Detroit native who used similar designs in the early 1970s on his own downtown murals.

Fairey and How & Nosm’s murals acted as both a massive advertisement for Bedrock’s real estate developments as well as a sign of growth for the city’s contemporary art scene as two marquee names in the art word brought works to downtown Detroit.

The positive effect of street art has been woven into the urban fabric of the neighborhoods, too, with public art festivals like Murals in the Market commissioning dozens of murals in Eastern Market and elsewhere.

Regardless of their growth in popularity, murals like Fairey’s remain beholden to ever-changing tides in cities like Detroit whether that means new construction or changing tastes — a principle of street art that even the artist accepts.

“I’m proud of the mural and sad to see it go, but as a street artist I’m very used to work coming and going,” said Fairey via a statement. “The Gilberts have mentioned the possibility of other opportunities, so I look forward to coming back to Detroit at some point to hopefully do another large mural.”

While Fairey’s mural at One Campus Martius will soon be removed from public view, his largest freestanding painting to date will be put on public view at a later date, according to a statement released by Bedrock.

