Palacio del Río

Project Type

Mosaic mural

Project Location

Hilton Palacio del Rîo in San Antonio

Completion Date

2014

In 2014, The Hilton Palacio del Río remodeled its public spaces. As part of that project, they commissioned me to design, build and install two large mosaic murals for the lobby. These pieces, each 14 feet wide and 10 feet high at peak, are Riverwalk scenes that incorporate imagery of plant and animal life on the river.

Close-up of a large mosaic mural of a river scene; the close-up is detail of a bird in the scene.

Close-up detail of mosaic mural in the lobby of a hotel. The mural is of the San Antonio River Walk. The close up if of a bird on the River Walk.

Close-up detail of mosaic mural in the lobby of a hotel. The mural is of the San Antonio River Walk. The close up if of a plant on the River Walk.

Close-up detail of mosaic mural in the lobby of a hotel. The mural is of the San Antonio River Walk. The close up if of a turtle on the River Walk.

A mosaic mural in the lobby of a hotel. The mural is of the San Antonio River Walk.

Close-up detail of mosaic mural in the lobby of a hotel. The mural is of the San Antonio River Walk. The close up if of a frog on a lily pad on the River Walk.

AUTHENTICITY IS IN THE DETAILS

Authenticity is important to me, so I worked with a landscape architect and artist to design representations of actual Riverwalk plants that are juxtaposed in each scene with fauna and a Riverwalk bridge — the foliage is ‘real world’, not products of my imagination.

I built these murals in my studio, using a custom easel and tiered scaffolding that I built specifically for this job. I created each mural on fiberglass mesh with the design underneath. I adhered the tiles to the mesh, which was held at a very specific angle — one that avoided tile slippage but at the same time kept my eyes close enough to the work to match the design. The scaffolding I built allowed me to work like that. The murals took about three months each to complete.

Each mural was made in one piece, and then cut like a jigsaw puzzle into subsections that could be transported to the site. That was a pretty involved process — the pieces needed to be marked and labeled in a way that facilitated perfect reassembly at the Hilton. The finished pieces went together seamlessly — you can’t tell that it was disassembled and reassembled.