Today I found a new personal hero.

THE WATTS TOWERS, by Simon Rodia is not just one of the most important  landmarks of LA, but is a timeless and mind blowing piece of art.

With concrete, glass, beer bottles, tile, and every other household throw away material you can think of Rodia spent 33 years building these towers that rise up to 100ft tall in his back yard.

With wives, family and business relationships broken and destroyed, and while the world around him was crumbling, Rodia was in the process of building his legacy that has survived the generations. Watts once use to be an Italian neighborhood, then a Japanese neighborhood, then a black neighborhood, and now they say 90% of the population is latinos.

And through the decades, regardless of riots, shoot-outs, law-suits, and a failed attempt by the city to rip the towers from their foundation, the towers still remain. By hand, this short, old man built the towers piece, by piece with everything he got.

The entire structure is set in the design of a ship, making ties to Rodia’s italian roots. It was said that his failure to lead the ideal life led to his own redemption, and that the only way to get to heaven is by sailing to it with this.

Each tower was built by himself, molding each level, climbing to the next as he went along. Most people that live in LA no little about this piece, or never knew about it’s existence. Now you know! Everyone needs to take a visit down to these towers before your time is up on this earth to see a jaw-dropping  monument that I bet will stand the test of our time.

“I had in mind to do something big, and I did it” ~~Simon Rodia.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 27th, 2009 at 9:09 pm and is filed under Art, Art Center, Arudima, Design, Event, Jun, Los Angeles, New, People. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.