A Fresh Start for Rodia’s Watts Towers

New York City has its Empire State Building, Sydney its opera house. Moscow has the Kremlin, London its Big Ben, and Los Angeles has Watts Towers.

In a city not world renowned for any particular architectural or engineering extravaganza (after all, we have our beaches and benign weather), most guidebooks to Los Angeles declare the towers “worth a detour” or a “must see.”

Indeed, when I viewed the hand-sculpted towers recently with a gaggle of architecture students from Cal Poly Pomona, the group we were in was mostly tourists.

They did not seem fazed, as some Angelenos are, that the towers are in an out-of-the-way and not particularly attractive neighborhood, at 1765 E. 107th St. near the convergence of Willowbrook Avenue and Santa Ana Boulevard, about two miles east of Interstate 110 in South-Central Los Angeles.

The towers consist of nine sculptures, ranging in height from about 13 feet to 100 feet and dominating the frayed surroundings. The towers are of steel rods and pipes, wrapped with iron mesh, tied with wire, coated with mortar and decorated with about 70,000 sea shells and salvaged pieces of glass, pottery, porcelain and tiles.

The glass includes quite of bit of green from 7-Up bottles and a smattering of brilliant blue from Milk of Magnesia bottles. Adding to the color and glisten of the structure are a bright palette of pieces of flower pots, vases, dishes and tiles. The result is a folk-art masterpiece that engages and enthralls.

It was fashioned over from 1921 to 1954--without the aid of scaffolds, a welding torch or power tools--by Sabatino Rodia, an Italian immigrant. The towers have become a cultural-heritage monument of the city, listed on the national register of historic places, and a world-recognized curiosity.

Rodia, also known variously as Sam, Simon and Don Simon, was a construction laborer who worked on the towers evenings and weekends. He built with materials he brought home from his different jobs and with what was scavenged by him and the neighborhood children, whom he paid. As a result, the towers are studded with a fractured treasury of dated household items.

When Rodia felt the structure was complete in 1954, he deeded it and his adjoining house to a neighbor--and walked away. The house burned down a few years later and the towers were vandalized and threatened by the city with demolition. Happily, they were saved by citizen efforts, principally by Bud Goldstone, an engineer who proved to the city that the structure was sound.

Asked years later why he had sculpted the towers, Rodia replied: “I had in mind to do something big, and I did.” He died in 1965.

The city now is trying to do something in response to the recognition of the towers as an artwork and the increasing interest in them as a tourist attraction. The Cultural Affairs Department has scheduled a ceremony at 10 a.m. Thursday to mark the beginning of some needed site work. Planned is a new fence around the towers, security lighting and a new sidewalk.

Conservation work also is slowly continuing on the towers, which over the years have suffered from decay and neglect. The landmark is now a charge of Cultural Affairs, with a citizens group, the Watts Towers Community and Conservation Trust, and local residents looking over its shoulder.

The conservation and construction work has limited tours within the grounds of the towers to select times and groups of 15 or more. The cost is $2 for adults, $1.50 for children 16 and under. Reservations are strongly advised, and can be made by calling (213) 569-8181.

Though not as fascinating as walking within the fretwork and viewing the decorations up close, most of the structure can be seen from all sides beyond the fence, for which there is no charge. Also, one might be able to join a tour group by inquiring in the adjacent community art center, which incidentally features some engaging exhibits.