Public Interest Briefs

Watts Towers Agreement Reached

Settlement Will Guarantee Long Term Preservation for Towers

A long-awaited settlement in the Center’s case seeking the preservation and long-term maintenance of the Watts Towers has just been agreed to by the Center on behalf of the Committee for Simon Rodia’s Towers in Watts, by the City of Los Angeles, and by the State of California.

The Watts Towers are a world renowned artistic and cultural landmark for Los Angeles and for the local community of Watts. They were built over a period of 33 years by Simon Rodia, an unlettered artists and immigrant from Italy. They rise to over 99 feet without a single welded, bolted, or riveted joint and are composed of steel, hand packed with cement and decorated with glass, shells, tile and other miscellaenous objects gathered by Rodia. In recognition of their cultural and artistic significance, the Towers, have been placed on the National Registry of Historic Places.

The Center brought a lawsuit in 1978 charging the City with violating its contract with the Committee by failing to care for the Towers. The Committee had deeded the Towers to the City in return for the City’s promise to maintain the Towers, but the City provided only nominal care. By 1978 large pieces of the Towers were regularly breaking, and cracks had widened to the point where the Towers were structurally unstable. The Center alleged that the City hired an unlicensd contractor, untrained in art restoration, whose restoration attempts further damaged the Towers. The Center’s litigation went all the way to the California Supreme Court and resulted in the Court ordering the City to take the unlicensed contractor off the project and to return the remainder of a $207,00 state grant for the project to enable the State to do the much needed work.

The State undertook the restoration work and authorized an additional $1,200,00 to implement a program for structural restoration of the Towers.

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