Saturday, the Cadiz Bridge, which sits just below the intersection of Cadiz at Lamar Street, experienced a facelift and makeover that rivaled the best in Dallas.
After navigating design changes and logistics since March, digital marketing agency (and South Side resident) Imaginuity was finally let loose to create their homage to our fair city.
Imaginuity partner and creative director Tim Langford designed the mural. He said his goal was when viewed driving into downtown, exiting the tunnel, the left side would reflect Downtown while the right side would reflect the neighborhood behind it, the Cedars. Downtown's panels feature nods toward tourism, history, sports and commerce (via Thanksgiving Square, Pegasus, Reunion Tower, and sports images) with Cedars' offering a glimpse of its cinematic, musical, culinary and artistic industries.
The third round of images submitted for approval, the final mural hearkens back to the Art Deco period in style, but Langford says he began creating the first round with the 1920s design style in mind.
Though the Cadiz Bridge Mural is bright and bold, it began rather quietly. Project lead Kristen Dodd, who was in charge of color for the mural and who served as Imaginuity's liaison with the city, South Side on Lamar, and development company Matthews Southwest, explained that the city's desire for the beautification project was discovered, in a way, by benevolent accident.
"Imaginuity has a long history of community service," Dodd said, taking a break from spraying the thick black border lines of the mural, Saturday afternoon. "Sometimes that is discounted or pro bono websites, but the thought was 'What if we do actual community service?'"
Dodd, who spends much of her time in and around South Side even after work hours, looked into the idea of a community project that moved the Imaginuity staff away from their monitors. As she explained, that evolved into finding out the city wanted a mural.
And eight months later, they got one.
After the mural crew of 40 worked from 6 a.m. into darkness this past Saturday to complete the project, Dodd said the City of Dallas will now take over maintenance of the the mural. She also offered that since the Cadiz Bridge is in application status to be an historical landmark, this project has served as a bit of a kick-off for bettering the bridge, and the community.
