Some murals are so big they change the skyline. On Main Street in El Segundo, rising over three stories high and stretching 118 feet across the South Bay Masonic Lodge, Scott Bloomfield's "Spirit of Aerospace" has been doing exactly that since 1997. Rockets launch. Shuttles soar. Engineers dream. Earth hangs suspended in space. It's a tribute to El Segundo's identity as the "Aerospace Capital," a visual anchor that tells the story of a city built on innovation, imagination, and human achievement.
When Hughes Electronics Corporation and the City of El Segundo commissioned the piece in the late '90s, El Segundo was at the height of its aerospace prominence. The mural wasn't just decoration. It was a declaration, a way of saying: this is who we are. For nearly three decades, it stood as one of the city's first major public art landmarks, a reminder of the technological leadership that defined the community.
But here's the thing about landmarks: over time, they can become invisible. People walk past them every day without really seeing them. The mural was still there, still monumental, but it had faded into the background of daily life. It needed something to make people stop and look again, to reconnect with the story it was telling.
That's where Reality Experience Design and El Segundo Art Walk (ESAW) saw an opportunity. What if technology, the very thing the mural celebrated, could bring it back to life? What if the rockets could actually launch, the shuttles could actually soar, and the whole scene could explode with the energy it was always meant to convey?
In 2024, they made it happen. Using Snapchat AR lens technology, Reality Experience Design created an experience that transforms "Spirit of Aerospace" from a static tribute into something you can feel. Visitors scan a QR code, point their phones at the wall, and suddenly the mural rumbles to life. Elements burst into motion. Spacecraft move across the painted sky. The entire scene becomes dynamic, immersive, alive.
It's not just about adding effects for the sake of spectacle. The AR layer deepens the connection between viewers and the mural's original intent. It makes the history tangible. When you watch a rocket launch off the wall through your screen, you're not just looking at aerospace heritage—you're experiencing it. You're part of it.
For ESAW and the city, the project addressed a challenge that goes beyond this single mural. How do you make decades-old public art relevant to new generations? How do you reach audiences who experience the world through their phones? How do you honor the past while embracing the future?
The answer turned out to be simpler than expected: you use the tools of today to tell the stories of yesterday. The AR experience doesn't replace Bloomfield's vision. It amplifies it, giving people a new way to engage with work that's been part of the community for almost 30 years.
The response has been remarkable. The "Spirit of Aerospace" AR lens, along with other ESAW projects, has generated over 270,000 views and created substantial buzz on social media. Numbers that far exceeded initial expectations. More importantly, it's brought people back to Main Street to rediscover a mural many had stopped noticing, turning a familiar landmark into a destination again.
El Segundo's 1% public art fund policy is accelerating this kind of innovation, with AR enhancements setting a template for future projects across both public and private sectors. The city is proving that you don't need to choose between preserving artistic heritage and embracing new technology. You can do both, and when you do, something powerful happens.
"Spirit of Aerospace" stands as proof that the best way to honor the past is to keep it moving forward. The mural celebrates decades of aerospace achievement, an industry built on the belief that humanity can reach beyond what seems possible. Now, through AR, it's doing exactly that again—reaching beyond the wall, beyond the paint, into a space where art, history, and technology converge.
For a city known as the Aerospace Capital, it's a fitting evolution. El Segundo isn't just preserving its legacy. It's launching it into the future, one augmented experience at a time. And for anyone who's ever wondered what it means to be a pioneer, this mural—both the original and its digital reimagining—offers a pretty clear answer: it means never standing still.
