Sabato "Simon" Rodia spent 33 years building something nobody had commissioned. The Italian immigrant had come to the United States as a teenager to work in Pennsylvania's coal mines. Between 1921 and 1954 he assembled 17 interconnected spires in his Los Angeles back yard out of steel, mortar, broken tiles, glass, pottery fragments and seashells. The tallest reaches nearly 100 feet. In October the ground around them will finally be rebuilt to match.
The city has confirmed a 22 million dollar expansion of the Watts Towers Arts Center Campus, due to be finished before the 2028 Summer Olympics. The plan adds more than 30,000 square feet of park space, some 200 trees, new walkways and landscaping designed to reduce flooding and cool the site. The grounds become a five-acre campus around the existing amphitheatre and cultural centre.
The final piece of funding was a 10.1 million dollar donation from the Bezos Earth Fund, secured with the nonprofit Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust. "This is about investing in the people of Watts and creating a space the community can be proud of," Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement.
A landmark the city once tried to demolish
The towers' standing has not always been secure. In 1959 the city attempted to have them torn down. Residents resisted, and an engineering test confirmed the structures were sound. They were designated a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1965 and a National Historic Landmark in 1990. In June the World Monuments Fund placed them on "Irreplaceable America", a list of ten historic sites marking the country's 250th anniversary. It noted at the same time that environmental stress, seismic risk and dwindling resources threaten their stability.
That last point explains why the announcement is not an unambiguous triumph. The new money is for the campus around the towers, not the towers themselves. A separate 15-year conservation programme led by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art stalled for lack of funds and ended early, roughly 10 percent short of completion. The 412,000 dollars needed to finish it are not covered by the new budget.
For the neighbourhood, the investment still counts. Rosie Lee Hooks, who directs the arts centre, told the Los Angeles Times the project had been awaited for years and was pursued to counter decades of disinvestment. "People are still scared to come down here," she said. "However, our community is very, very rich in culture."