10/6/2017

How the Watts Towers Escaped Demolitionkcet.org /shows/lost-la/how-the-watts-towers-escaped-demolition

Watch Artbound's short documentary: "Preserving the Watts Towers"

Today, the structures known as the Watts Towers are icons of the city of Los Angeles, known around the world. Thesurrounding area has incubated and arts and cultural vibe that draws pride from the spires, towers, and mosaics.Simon Rodia himself called the complete project “Nuestro Pueblo,” meaning “Our Town.”

Rodia was asked many times why he chose to build objects out of salvaged steel, chicken wire, and cementencrusted with shells, bottle fragments, and stones. The one-time telephone lineman and stone mason said, “I had itin my mind to do something big and did it” – so goes the quote or a version close to it. What we do know is that theywere built between 1921 and 1954, when Rodia left L.A. for the Northern California town of Martinez, never to return.He sold the property to his neighbor and by 1959, it was owned by actor Nicholas King and a group of concernedcitizens who were worried about the future of the property.

The value of the towers to the city of Los Angeles as art is relatively new. That wasn’t the prevailing view in the1950s. A condemnation order was issued in early 1957 by the city and was adjudicated a little over two years later– a process richly documented in the Los Angeles City Archives .

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https://www.kcet.org/shows/lost-la/how-the-watts-towers-escaped-demolitionhttp://clerk.lacity.org/city-archives-and-records-center

A crowd watches structural testing of the Watts Towers, July 1959, courtesy of the Los Angeles City Archives

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Photo taken during structural testing, July 1959, courtesy of the Los Angeles City Archives

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A photo showing damage to Watts Tower C, July 1959, courtesy of the Los Angeles City Archives

Splicing on the base of Tower C, June 1959, courtesy of the Los Angeles City Archives

A series of meetings of the Building and Safety Commissioners was convened. The official purpose of thediscussion, according to their memo issued to interested parties, “to show why the structures should not be ordered,repaired, or demolished” The supporting documents and photographs referred to the towers by letters A through E.

The discussions of the Building and Safety Commissioners survive in meeting transcripts and exhibits housed at theCity Archives. Exhibits such as sketches drawn by inspectors and photographs accompany the written testimonybetween July 6 and October 19, 1959. Letters of support range from national art councils, publications, andmuseums to local groups such as the Junior Art League of UCLA and individuals like famed architect Paul RevereWilliams. They make the case for preservation of the towers as art and a “possible tourist attraction,” according toone supporter. Many of the letter writers knew Rodia personally and describe his work in very personal terms. Onesuch letter also reminds us of the economics of the area at that time and the need for art:

Through the years, many of us old-timers watched Simon Rodia build them and enjoyed occasional evenings thereadmiring the play of lights on his marvelous mosaics. Since as a group in the lower income brackets, we have toofew works of art in our midst, we would sorely miss this wonderful work of genius if it is taken away from us.

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Sketch drawn by Oren Ray Bussard, June 1959, courtesy of the Los Angeles City Archives

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Sketch of Tower B by Oren Ray Bussard, June 1959, courtesy of the Los Angeles City Archives

The poetry and passion of these materials are in direct opposition to the transcripts. They are full of the testimony ofbuilding inspectors and engineers who described their findings in the language of construction math and science.Jack Levine, the lawyer for the non-profit Committee for Simon Rodia’s Towers in Watts initially questioned whetherthe Building Code applied to the towers at all, as they were not habitable structures. The small house that Rodia hadlived in had been damaged by fire after he left town and had been demolished before the hearings occurred.

An inspector who had visited Rodia in 1951 described what he saw: “He accompanied us over the entire triangularshaped property…I was more or less amazed what he had told us at the time how one man could do this workwithout assistance…He explained how he was keeping those things maintained [by] climbing up on those towerswith a bucket of cement plaster [and] just patt[ing] it in place” When asked if Rodia used a ladder, the response wasthat “he went up like a monkey” up the side of the tower without a ladder or scaffolding. However amusing an imagethat may be, there are photographs of Rodia at work with ladders nearby.

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Exhibit B showing map of Watts Towers, June 1959, courtesy of the Los Angeles City Archives

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Page from the Goldstone test report, July 1959, courtesy of the Los Angeles City Archives

The hearings continued for 11 days until July 23, 1959 and were continued until an independent set of engineeringand structural tests were completed. The final day of the hearings on October 19 discussed the test results andconcluded that the towers were sound from an engineering standpoint and could be safely strengthened andpreserved. Attorney Jack Levine summed up the towers in his closing remarks to the commission:

This is something different than an ordinary structure, and that the City should have recognized that this issomething different from an ordinary structure…they were designed to be looked at, to be seen… they are a treasureof the community…and that we can expect that with this decision that the towers will stand for generations to comenot only for the owners to enjoy but also for the interested members of our community and all over this entirecountry.

Thankfully, the commission decided in favor of preservation. The alternative may have only left us this short filmabout the towers, made before Rodia left Los Angeles.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=719&v=9njXNZuASi0

How the Watts Towers Escaped Demolition