Local artists will soon have a new venue to display their work – the walls of buildings in downtown Baton Rouge.
The Downtown Development District introduced the BR Walls Project on Tuesday at its monthly commission meeting. The project will transform building walls into canvases for massive murals.
The first phase of the project will be downtown, but co-curator Casey Phillips said he envisions the project expanding beyond the capital area.
Four sites are already on board, Phillips said. Murals will be painted at The Buzz Cafe, Boudreaux and Thibodeaux’s, the Mentorship Academy and Harrington’s Cafe.
Phillips said the project’s time frame depends upon the donations received, but he hopes to “get the project rolling” near the end of April.
“Bringing people back to Baton Rouge is always the bigger mission,” Phillips said, adding that several people involved with the BR Walls Project had left and recently returned to the city.
The future of the Department of Public Works building was also discussed at the meeting.
DPW Director William Daniel said the building will be torn down to create more green space for Baton Rouge. The new space will fulfill part of the city’s master plan that called for central green space.
Daniel said he’s looking forward to moving across the street into the eighth floor of City Hall, which will be the DPW’s new home.
The DPW is also working on a parking study of downtown, and Daniel said he hopes to install electronic meters that can be paid for with a credit card and can detect when a car parks and leaves, Daniel said. The meters will be able to monitor more than one car at a time.
“These parking meters are smarter than me,” Daniel joked. “So all those times I drive around looking for a parking meter with time on it – I won’t be able to do that anymore,”
Davis Rhorer, DDD executive director, said that in five weeks, engineers will begin preparing the Municipal Dock for the 20 to 30 river boats that will make frequent stops in Baton Rouge.
“We didn’t have any boats last year. So they’re returning back, and this is why it’s a big deal for us,” Rhorer said.
Rhorer and the rest of the DDD board welcomed the new businesses Handmade at Homestead and Azteca’s Mexican Cuisine and announced upcoming downtown events, including the free concerts Simmering in the Square and Sunday in the Park.
 
____ Contact Emily Herrington at [email protected]