Blue Skies Ahead . . .

Demolition of the hopelessly out-of-fashion Plaza Pasadena, slated for 2000, will bring down a Terry Schoonhoven mural that floats above the central court. The painting draws upon the scenery outside the retail underachiever, incorporating sky, San Gabriel Mountains and the Pasadena skyline: City Hall, a flag-bedecked Civic Auditorium, a downtown office building. In one corner, a brick wall dissolves into clouds.

The art will be sacrificed to make way for Paseo Colorado, an open-air “urban village,” as the developer calls it, with walkways connecting stores, movie theaters, housing and outdoor gathering spaces. “This is a sad thing,” says Tamara Thomas, arts consultant for the project, “but it is the fate of a muralist who paints directly on the dry wall.”

Though the mural’s images seem to foretell the mall’s fate, “I’m not clairvoyant or psychic,” says Schoonhoven, whose work also appears at downtown L.A.’s Union Station and the Huntington Beach Pier. The painting has held up well, he says, but he doesn’t mourn its passing. “My works are very theatrical. Once the performance is over, I go on.”--Naomi Glauberman