“… please look closely at real cities. While you are looking, you might as well also listen, linger and think about what you see.” Jane Jacobs, preamble to Death and Life of Great American Cities.

 My interest in art and urban innovation led me to accept a challenging project. I was recently asked to design a photographic mural for a new program at New York’s School of Visual Arts. This two-year graduate program provides students with the design tools and skills needed to become leaders in social innovation. So I created a 70′ x 9′ photographic mural – “City Wall” – which would sheath the exterior wall of a 55-seat auditorium, surrounded by multifunctional spaces. The ensuing photographic composition, was printed by Visual Magnetics using innovative magnetic technology which, together with the wall’s magnetic paint, accommodates recyclable graphics. “City Wall” pioneered this new technology for the inauguration of SVA’s new Design for Social Innovation program.

Physically the mural encircles the program’s auditorium, leading the viewer inside; symbolically, it represents the urban and cultural identity of certain neighborhoods of Manhattan and Brooklyn. The upper and lower sections of the mural depict the city’s diverse architectural landscapes; the middle section, separated by a double frieze of building perspectives, represents the spontaneous, direct human intervention on the city’s physical skin in a joyous expression of ownership and belonging.

What better way to inspire design students coming from various parts of the globe than to greet them with a portrait of their host city – New York, city of cities, magnet for innovative minds?