Mercy Housing Mural Relocation

Balmy Alley is home to a constantly evolving, highly-dense collection of murals in San Francisco. The first mural in the alley was painted in 1972 by resident artists living in the neighborhood, and gained popularity in the 80s as a canvas for artists to share their fury revolving around civil rights and political instability. 

In 2019, our team was commissioned to perform a conservation assessment and documentation project of large-scale murals. The purpose of the first portion of the project was to document the murals in fine detail, so our team could later reassemble them.

In 2021, the Mercy Housing building that housed the murals was demolished. Our conservators worked tirelessly to complete the disassembly and recreation of the murals while causing minimal foot and road traffic, by working during off-hours. The mural now adorns a low-income senior housing development, where it brightens the residents’ days.