Get ready for a new landmark, Del Ray.

The Del Ray Mural Youth Project has been approved by the Alexandria Commission for the Arts, and the artistic team will immediately begin preparations to install the piece on an exterior wall of the Mount Vernon Recreation Center. 

Plans for the mural were left on display at the center for more than a week. The public left comments concerning the project in a binder as well as through e-mails to the commission. Lead artist Leisa Collins said that the comments were "95 percent positive."

The project is to coincide with next month's Art on the Avenue festival. With the help of artists Corinne Marlowe, Forest Allread and five youth teams, Collins aims to construct the bulk of the mural during the festival on Oct. 2.

"Now it will a matter of going full blast, assembling the youth teams, putting the rest of the artist team together, priming the wall, getting the scaffolding up, drawing out the outline of the mural on the wall, and all the other logistics involved," Collins said in an e-mail.

The mural is to depict life in Del Ray along with elements of the United Nations Universal Declaration on Human Rights. Art on the Avenue will donate all of the money for the mural's construction.

The rec center wall, which faces Nicholas A. Colasanto Park, is a mammoth 60 feet wide and 14.6 feet tall. The artists plan to sketch out the design in advance and have the youth teams paint different sections of the mural throughout the day of the festival.

The five youth teams that will help construct the mural will represent the Charles Houston Recreation Center, Mount Vernon Recreation Center, Youth for Human Rights Greater D.C. Chapter, City of Alexandria Mentoring Partnership and the Alexandria-Fairfax Boys and Girls Club.