Andre Balazs’ Vision For The Standard East Village Doesn’t Include Shepard Fairey

Shepard Fairey‘s mural on East Fifth and Cooper Square has been taken down, the Local: East Village reported yesterday. It was that one of a monk on the side of the Cooper Square Hotel, recently renamed the Standard East Village by new owner Andre Balazs. The mural had been on the side of the building since April of last year.

Here’s a photo of the mural being taken down yesterday:

And this is what it looks like (or doesn’t look like, since there’s nothing there) today:

A Balazs spokeswoman told the Local that “Having discussed with Art Production Fund that the piece was originally intended to be a temporary mural, and given its condition was peeling off the wall, we opted to remove it.”

It won’t be replaced with anything.