In early May, Longmont muralist Gamma Acosta stood in front of a bare concrete wall beside the new Hotel Longmont garage and saw a missed opportunity. That's how the Longmont Times-Call described it. The city had picked an artist from Charlotte, North Carolina, to paint the wall. Acosta posted a short video about it on May 13, and within hours the commission was being argued over on the Voice of Longmont Facebook page.
That wall is finished now. The argument it started is what changed the process for the next one. On Oct. 21, Longmont City Council added a "distinct local preference" to the call for artists for a mural about the same size on the new 1st & Main Transit Station garage. The new rule comes straight out of what happened on Kimbark Street.
The wall that went to Charlotte
The finished piece is "Architecture of Time" by Osiris Rain. It covers the Hotel Longmont parking structure at 321 Kimbark Street. It spans more than 5,000 square feet across 12 faces of the garage, across the street from the library and civic center. In the Times-Call's June coverage, Rain described its symbols, patterns and narratives as expressions of collective memory: how landscapes, traditions and communities are built over time. In July the paper announced a public celebration marking its completion.
The commission paid $85,000. The Times-Call called it one of the largest public art projects tied to Longmont's Creative District in recent years. Joyanna Rose Gittings, who owns Obra Arts in downtown Longmont, was one of 11 Longmont artists who applied. She wrote a letter questioning the process, and nine people signed it.
"This is one of the biggest budgeted projects that we've ever seen in the Creative District, which is so central to our city. And they didn't want a local artist for it."
Gittings said that to the Times-Call in May.
How 182 applications narrowed to one
The city's account of the selection explains why council later felt it had to put the preference in writing. The Times-Call laid out the steps:
- 182 artists applied after a February call that asked for proposals reflecting "the energy of the space and the surrounding community."
- The first 100 qualified applicants were reviewed. Eleven were from Longmont, and 33 were from Colorado in total.
- Artist names and locations were hidden from judges during the early rounds.
- One Longmont artist and five Colorado artists made it into further review discussions.
- Three semifinalists were chosen: one Colorado artist and two from out of state.
The city says the semifinalists then gave public presentations, and a community-based panel made the final pick. City officials told the Times-Call that the call went national because a large mural spread over several building faces needed an artist with that kind of experience. Angela Brill, who administers Longmont's Art in Public Places program, defended the anonymous early rounds. She wrote that blind review "is a widely accepted best practice in public art processes."
Both points hold up. The blind review worked the way it was designed to, and because it did, a local applicant had no way to be credited for being local. That gap is the one council closed in October.
What council put in writing on Oct. 21
The 1st & Main mural will cover the south-facing wall of the transit station's parking garage, about 5,000 square feet, as a gateway into downtown. According to the Times-Call's account of the meeting, Councilmember Crystal Prieto raised the issue first. She asked how the new process would respond to feedback from the Kimbark project and said, "How do you get experience if you don't get the opportunity?"
Councilmember Jake Marsing moved to require a preference for local or Colorado-based artists. Councilmember Matthew Popkin suggested shorter wording, "distinct local preference," which leaves the Art in Public Places program to interpret it, and Marsing accepted the change. The amendment passed 5-2, with Mayor Susie Hidalgo-Fahring and Councilmember Diane Crist voting no. The amended resolution then passed 7-0.
The mayor said the commissioners had already been working on the concerns from May: "I don't want to put so many guardrails in there and make it so tight that our commissioners are unable to execute their duties."
The rule is narrower than it may sound. Out-of-state artists can still apply, and the rule doesn't guarantee a local winner. Two other ideas came up at the same meeting:
- A mentor-mentee pairing. Brill suggested a structure in which a Longmont artist might work as the mentee alongside a more experienced non-local artist as mentor. She said a project this size calls for experience with lifts, materials and contracting.
- Community input on themes first. "Because this is such a large project and is a gateway into our downtown, we really need to open that up to the greater community," Brill said. The city plans to ask the public for theme ideas before it opens the call for artists.
Same wall size, different price
On paper the two garage murals cover about the same area. Their budgets are very different.
| Hotel Longmont garage | 1st & Main Transit Station garage | |
|---|---|---|
| Location | 321 Kimbark Street | South face of the new garage at 1st and Main |
| Size | More than 5,000 sq ft over 12 faces | About 5,000 sq ft on one wall |
| Budget | $85,000 | Up to $200,000 |
| Artist selection | Blind early rounds | "Distinct local preference" |
According to the Longmont Brief, City Manager Harold Dominguez explained the gap: the $200,000 figure covers 20 years of mural maintenance, and insurance will be expensive because the work happens so high off the ground. Council also set the money aside inside the transit station project instead of putting it toward the city's general Art in Public Places fund. How the $200,000 would be split under a mentorship arrangement is still undecided.
What's going up behind the wall
Today the mural's future home is a construction site. The city broke ground on the 1st & Main Transit Station on Oct. 9. The five-story building will hold a bus station with 10 bus bays and about 700 parking spaces, 150 of them open to the public. The Times-Call reported that the $70 million station and the Coffman Street extension are targeted for completion by the end of 2027. The extension will connect First Avenue to Boston Avenue.
Tebo Properties plans a mixed-use building wrapped around the garage, with construction set to start in early 2027. Plans call for roughly 250 homes, 14,000 square feet of commercial space along Main Street, and more parking for residents and visitors.
If you walk or drive past this winter and smell gasoline, the city has an explanation. A gas station once stood on the site, and when crews uncover the soil it left behind, it can release gasoline-like odors. Digging started Oct. 16. The city's project page says it doesn't expect health effects for the public, and the odors should fade as the contaminated soil is hauled away.
Local murals you can see on Main Street now
Public theme input for the new wall hasn't opened yet, and nothing will be painted until the garage is built. In the meantime, Main Street already has a lot of work by local and regional muralists. These are listed in the Downtown Longmont public art directory, from south to north:
- "Longmont's Story" by Gamma Acosta, 330 Main Street
- "Debajo La Misma Luna (Under the Same Moon)" by Tony Ortega, 437 Main Street
- "Keyhole" and "Blossom" by Adden J, 518 Coffman Street, one block west of Main
- "Four Generations" by Gamma Acosta, 627 Main Street
Acosta has painted murals in Longmont and Denver for about two decades, and in 2021 he finished a three-year project on Denver's largest mural in the RiNo Art District, per the Times-Call. A walk between his two Main Street pieces runs right past several other murals, and "Architecture of Time" is a short walk west on Kimbark.
The mural at 1st and Main is still at least a garage away. The next decision residents can weigh in on is the theme input the Art in Public Places program plans to open before the artist call. Longmont's Art in Public Places program has run since 1989. Its volunteer commission approves sites, recruits residents to serve on selection panels and issues calls for artists, as described on the city's AIPP page.
I love seeing downtown Longmont grow. If you want to talk through what the 1st & Main build-out, the new garage and the Tebo Properties homes could mean for the blocks around Main Street, Manzanita Fine would be glad to walk them with you. Schedule a one-on-one neighborhood consult.
