Murals solution

Regarding the April 11 editorial "Artless Renovation" and the April 6 column by Patricia Lowry ("Murals to Go"): I have a simple, low-cost solution to preserve the two massive lobby murals of One Oliver Plaza.

As an artist, historic architecture aficionado and designer who passed these murals daily in the late 1970s on the way to my office, I suggest both murals be covered in place with false walls, to be rediscovered years from now during a restoration of the building to its original classic International-style architecture of the mid-20th century. It will only be a matter of time before aesthetic tastes change again and future generations of art lovers will want to uncover and enjoy these artworks again in their original designed location.

Many much-admired public murals today were at one time covered by "modernizations." It is not unusual to lose interest in an object, place it out of sight for years only later to rediscover it with a new sense of aged appreciation.

The cost to cover for the current owner of One Oliver Plaza is small: the loss of one foot of lobby floor space by each mural, a high-quality photographic record and some drywall with metal studs. The benefits to current and future art lovers is large: long-term preservation in place of two pieces of major locally designed public works of art.

PETER FLOYD
Sewickley