Hey, Greenville👋 Have y’all heard of Canvas Tower at 301 College St.? You may recognize it as the former BB&T office tower. Well, this 1970’s building is about to get a major facelift, both inside + out.

Canvas Tower | Photo from The Beach Company

The Beach Company, a Charleston-based real estate development company, is planning to convert the former bank office to a multi-use space. Together with some new construction, the Canvas community will house 31 for-sale townhomes, 48 multifamily for-rent apartments, and 21,805 sq. ft. of retail space.

As for the outside, The Beach Company has commissioned Guido van Helten to use Canvas Tower as the canvas for a new eight-story mural. Guido is an award-winning Australian artist, known for his towering photorealistic works + the murals he has created all over the world.

A mural created by Guido van Helten in Fort Smith, AR | Photo from Guido van Helten

When van Helten visited Greenville earlier this year, he met with several community leaders before deciding to explore diversity, connectivity, and unity in Greenville for his concept + the history of integration in education as the unifying theme of the piece.

So, what will the mural look like? Well, that’s a mystery for now.

Here’s what we do know. We can expect a photorealistic mural of a Greenville resident to cover the façade of the eight-story building + that the design will reference the history of desegregation + integration of schools across the county and convey the impact one teacher can have across multiple generations.

Work is just getting started on the mural + the Greenvillian’s identity will be revealed as the mural progresses. The mural is expected to be finished sometime this fall. You can read the mural project summary presentation here.

Question