Tucson is now home to Arizona's tallest mural

Tucson is home to the state’s largest mural, Jessica Gonzales‘s 26,000-square-foot “Sonoran Skylines” at Park Place.

We now will have the state’s tallest mural, too.

Joe Pagac‘s imposing saguaro cactus climbs 153 feet on the north side of the 11-story Transamerica Building at 177 N. Church Ave., towering over the neighboring Presidio San Agustín del Tucson Museum at 196 N. Court Ave.

“Desert Colossus” is three times the size of the 53-foot-tall “Generations” on North Central Avenue in Phoenix, which until this week was the state’s tallest mural.

Pagac’s saguaro, which will be unveiled at a public celebration March 21 at the Presidio Museum, is so tall that eastbound Interstate 10 drivers can see it when they approach the Speedway/St. Mary’s Road exit. You don’t even have to strain to see the baby blue skyline and bright green tip of the cactus from the downtown campus of Pima Community College on West Speedway and North Stone Avenue.

We haven’t tested the theory, but it’s a safe bet flights descending into Tucson International Airport will get a passing glance of Pagac’s hummingbirds swirling around the cluster of creamy white cactus blossoms capping several of the cactus’ arms.

“That building is like a billboard from the freeway,” said Jannie Cox, the longtime Rio Nuevo board member who championed the mural project as part of the downtown redevelopment agency’s Activate El Presidio neighborhood improvement initiative. “Anyone driving on the freeway who looks left cannot possibly miss that saguaro.”

“I love to bring some of the Sonoran Desert that surrounds the city into the heart of it,” Pagac said. “I love painting nature larger than life so people can really appreciate it, and hopefully it inspires people to get out and hike in it a bit.”

The mural, which extends the equivalent of two stories above the top floor, is an anchor for the public-private Activate El Presidio. Launched six years ago, the beautification project adds art, plants, shade, lighting and color to the historic El Presidio neighborhood. The project, bordering Church and Main avenues and Alameda and Franklin streets, is funded largely by Rio Nuevo, with additional private funding from El Presidio businesses and neighbors.

Tucson philanthropist Jeanne McDonald picked up the $95,000 tab for Pagac, the second time she has invested in his art. McDonald, an avid cyclist, worked with Pagac on his “Bicycle Built for Two“ bronze sculpture of a javelina riding a tandem bike.

The sculpture, installed in May 2023 at the Mountain Avenue Bridge on the north bank of Rillito River Park, was taken down last October after it was vandalized.

“It was such a joy for the cyclists in town, and it was so disappointing when it was vandalized,” McDonald said early this week, as Pagac and his wife, Lenka Vašíčková, were high up on the scaffold painting their way down to the lower floors of Transamerica’s 11 stories. “I was talking to Jannie Cox, and I was kind of like, what would be something that I could get excited about donating towards? She told me about this mural that Joe was going to be doing. I mean, the saguaro cactus has been in Tucson for 8,000 years, and so it’s got historical significance, and also, hopefully, being on the side of a building, it can’t be vandalized.”

“I’m excited about it,” she added. “I love art and I’ve donated to different organizations. … I kind of wanted my donation to not just be put in a pot and go for staff salaries or something like that. I wanted to do something that would be a little bit more meaningful to me.”

Pagac had hoped to finish the mural on Thursday, but high winds put the work on hold. All that remains to be painted are prickly pear cacti at the base of the saguaro.

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“Desert Colossus” is the latest addition to Pagac’s bulging mural portfolio that includes his iconic “Epic Rides” at 534 N. Stone Ave. and “Sky Islands” (the whale mural) on the side of the old Catalina Theater at 2320 N. Campbell Ave. that became partially obscured nearly two years ago when a Starbucks moved into the vacant corner lot at North Campbell Avenue and East Grant Road.

Other iconic works include “Harboring Beauty” at the intimate 191 Toole concert venue at 191 E. Toole Ave.; “Roadrunner Cycling” at 601 N. Stone Ave.; and “We Wish You Heaven,” the Prince memorial mural on the side of the Rialto Theater on East Congress Street.

“It’s incredible to see an artwork of mine standing among the buildings downtown in a way I wouldn’t have even dreamed possible when I started my career,” Pagac said of “Desert Colossus.”

Pagac’s next project will take him to the Las Vegas Strip next month. He’s also anxious to see the public’s reaction to a pair of just-finished 1,000-plus-square-foot murals at Roadies Lanes + Games + Gastropub, Roadhouse Cinema’s sister entertainment complex set to open soon in the former Bed, Bath & Beyond space next to Roadhouse at 4811 E. Grant Road.

Roadies has a bowling alley, ax throwing, laser tag, an arcade, concert venue, bar and mini movie theaters that small groups can rent.

Pagac’s murals at Roadies connect the dots between the bowling lanes and Roadhouse’s movies. One features Marilyn Monroe riding on a motorcycle with bowling ball wheels and hitting a bunch of giant pins in the desert. Another image shows the Big Lebowski on a train loaded down with giant bowling balls and a bunch of saguaro cactus-shaped bowling pins.

“Those are like two of my favorite murals I’ve ever done,” he said, explaining that he used regular paint mixed with blacklight paint “so when you shine a light on it, it’ll glow, which is cool.”

“Desert Colossus” is Pagac’s second footprint on the Transamerica Building. He and fellow Tucson muralists Katherine Joyce, Arielle Alelunas and Brady Fellows collaborated in 2021 on the TMC El Tour de Tucson mural alongside the Transamerica Building Parking Structure, 177 N Church Ave.

The El Tour mural features a handful of desert creatures from a jackrabbit and javelina to a roadrunner, tortoise, bighorn sheep and Gila monster riding bikes.

“I’m so thankful for how much Tucson has embraced murals and the arts, and I hope to keep painting walls as long as I can hold a brush,” Pagac said.

It also is Pagac's second tall mural. In 2019, he painted the 70-foot "The Wailin' Mailman: A Portrait of Buck Hill" on the side of the nine-story Elysium Fourteen apartments in Washington, D.C.'s historically Black U Street Neighborhood.

When it was built in 1962, the Transamerica Building — initially called the Phoenix Title Building — was Tucson’s tallest building, edging out the 11-story Pioneer Hotel by two feet.

Today the building, which is home to mostly law firms and lawyers, ranks as the city’s 15th tallest and is just half the size of the city’s tallest building, the 330-foot, 23-story One South Church at 1 S. Church Ave.