This Colorado Landmark Just Got a Colorful Fruita Makeover

If you drive into Fruita on I-70, you’ve probably noticed the changes at the COOP Tower. The banners serve as our town’s visual welcome signs for eastbound and westbound travelers, but that view changed in September as the city unveiled two new large-scale artworks.

Congratulations to local artist Andrea Downs, who designed the new banners celebrating the Western Slopes outdoor landscape and featuring Grrreta, our familiar downtown dinosaur.

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Fruita’s COOP Tower Just Got a Completely Different Look

The city of Fruita unveiled the new banners on September 25. The previous ones had been up for years, and Andrea Downs was selected through a formal artist process to create new designs to represent different sides of the city.

The next time you are in downtown Fruita, stop by Mulberry Plaza. A telescope has been added so the public can get a closer look at the details not easily seen from ground level (beneath the tower). The telescope was in service at the Empire State Building from 1991 through 1997.

One Side Celebrates Fruita’s Outdoor Reputation

Fruita's COOP Tower Has Two New Murals You Need to See

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In the photo above, the old mural is on the left, and the new one is on the right. Fruita wanted to keep the east-facing cyclist backdrop to reflect Fruita’s tourism identity while remaining recognizable from a distance. This is a nice update on a familiar theme, which also includes the Colorado National Monument, McInnis Canyons, and the Colorado River in the artwork.

The Other Side Features Fruita’s Famous Dinosaur

Fruita's COOP Tower Has Two New Murals You Need to See

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In the photo above, the old mural is on the left, and the new one is on the right. The West-facing artwork now features Gretta the Dinosaur from downtown Circle Park set on a colorful field of flowers. The flowers were a community project created and digitized into Downs’ final design. This makes the result a piece of public art the community created together.