Committee for Simon Rodia’s Towers in Watts v. City of Los Angeles
Case Summary
"Number all seven members of the California Supreme Court as friends of Simon Rodia's Towers in Watts," the Los Angeles Times jubilantly editorialized, when CLIPI obtained a 7-0 ruling that the City of Los Angeles must return all funds to the State of California so that emergency repair and restoration work on the Watts Towers could proceed. The Towers are a universally acclaimed artistic and cultural masterpiece constructed by hand over a 33-year period by an immigrant artist. The City had failed to maintain the Towers for years. As they began to deteriorate, the State provided funds to the City for needed repairs and restoration, but the City Public Works Department hired an unlicensed contractor without art restoration skills. His workers tore out and dropped sizable pieces of the sculpture; permitted damaging fluids to drip randomly about; and failed to follow professionally prescribed restoration techniques. After obtaining an injunction against further "savage restoration" activities, an LA Times investigation revealed that the City's unlicensed contractor paid $10,000 "under the table" to the then-President of the City Board of Public Works in connection with the contract. After the Board President resigned in disgrace, the litigation was settled as the State agreed to use an additional $2 million fund, established jointly by the City and the State, to complete the restoration in accord with stringent preservation standards. With restoration completed, the Towers are open to the public.
Additional Information
Simon Rodia spent 33 years constructing what would become Los Angeles’ most famous outdoor work of art, the Watts Towers. Ralph Vaughn was preparing to undo this extraordinary legacy in a matter of days. Ostensibly retained to restore the Towers, Vaughn was hiring local gang members who would scale the homemade, wispy-like spires and rip away the collage of seashells, pottery shards and the tile that festooned the steel frames.
Faced with the imminent loss of this masterpiece, a local community group turned to CLIPI to enjoin the “savage restoration.”
The Committee for Simon Rodia's Towers in Watts had acquired the Towers when Rodia completed his work in 1954. Starting in 1921, this immigrant Italian tile setter patiently erected spires of scrap steel that rose 100 feet high. He would hang suspended by a window-washer’s belt from his evolving, whimsical creations. He handpacked the spires with cement and decorated them with broken glass, pottery shards and other random objects. These joyful works of folk art stood erect without a single welded, bolted or riveted joint. They were the immigrant’s tribute to his adopted homeland.
The Committee, composed of dedicated artists and historic preservationists, was anxious to preserve Rodia’s handiwork for prosperity. Their protagonist would turn out to be the City of Los Angeles.
At one point the City’s Department of Building and Safety concluded that the Towers were unsafe and ordered them torn down. A Committee member devised a test to see if the Towers would crack. When the City’s testing device cracked instead, the City agreed the Towers could remain.
By the late 1970s, the cost to maintain and exhibit the Towers became too great. The Committee deeded the Towers to the City that once wanted them torn down. The Committee placed its trust in the City’s promise to maintain the Towers. The City soon reverted to form, stinting on funds to comply with its promise. Instead, the City obtained a grant from the State to restore the Towers. Enter Mr. Vaughn.
The City gave the work, without bid, to Vaughn, a contractor with some curious non-credentials. He had no experience in historic preservation. He did not even have a contractor’s license. He thereupon enrolled in a program to acquire a license–an attempt to charge the City for his education.
This same contractor hired the local gang members who were ripping apart what was supposed to be restored. When the contractor promised to re-style the Towers for a “new look”, the desperate Committee sought legal help from CLIPI attorneys Carlyle Hall and Joel Reynolds.
Within days, CLIPI obtained a succession of emergency court orders, confirmed by a unanimous California Supreme Court, to stop further work and force dangerous chemicals to be moved off site. The City had to return the grant money to the State. The State Office of Historic Preservation, not Vaughn, would do the repairs.
Just what “qualified” the unlicensed contractor finally came to light. CLIPI discovered that the contractor had made an under-the-table payment of $10,000 to the Chairman of the Department of Public Works to obtain the job. The Chairman resigned when this was disclosed.
In 1985, the City agreed to pledge almost a million dollars to allow the State to undo the “savage restoration” and complete the repairs, assisted by the Getty Museum’s conservation staff. The new look was out, the old look was in.
Rodia’s tribute to his adopted homeland now attracts visitors from around the world. The Towers are listed on the National Registry of Historic Places.
(Published in the 25th Anniversary of CLIPI Dinner Program)
