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dc.coverage.spatialSite: Los Angeles, California, United Statesen_US
dc.coverage.temporal1921-1954 (creation)en_US
dc.creatorRodia, Simonen_US
dc.date1921-1954en_US
dc.date.accessioned2013-12-18T21:14:35Z
dc.date.available2013-12-18T21:14:35Z
dc.date.issued1921-1954en_US
dc.identifier241654en_US
dc.identifier.otherarchrefid: 2808en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1721.3/149943
dc.descriptionPathway between enclosure all on the right and the tower area, with pergola arching overhead; The Towers were built by Italian immigrant construction worker Sabato ("Sam" or "Simon") Rodia in his spare time over a period of 33 years, from 1921 to 1954. The work is an example of non-traditional vernacular architecture and naive art. Rodia had immigrated to the US ca. 1893. In 1921, in the garden of his frame house (now destroyed) in Watts, he began construction of a series of towers and garden ornaments, formed of steel bars (rebar) covered in layers of concrete reinforced with wire, encrusted with pieces of broken pottery, glass, broken bottles and sea shells. They are an open web of bars, self-supporting and built without aid of scaffolding, the tallest of them eventually rising to 99 ft. In 1954 Rodia abruptly stopped work on his garden sculpture and towers, and deeded them to a neighbor; he left Watts and moved to Martinez, near San Francisco. In 1957 the city of Los Angeles began proceedings to demolish the towers but a number of artists and others interested in the huge sculptures brought suit, subjected the towers to a stress test and convinced the city to leave the towers as a public cultural monument. They were designated both a National Historic Landmark and a California Historical Landmark in 1990. Source: Grove Art Online; http://www.oxfordartonline.com/ (accessed 7/30/2013)en_US
dc.format.mediumsteel rebar; concrete; wire mesh; found objectsen_US
dc.rights© Scott Gilchrist, Archivision, Inc.en_US
dc.subjectarchitectureen_US
dc.subjectdecorative artsen_US
dc.subjectRestoration and conservationen_US
dc.subjectTwentieth centuryen_US
dc.subjectnaive arten_US
dc.titleWatts Towersen_US
dc.title.alternativeTowers of Simon Rodiaen_US
dc.typeimageen_US
dc.rights.accessLicensed for educational and research use by the MIT community onlyen_US
dc.identifier.vendorcode1A1-RSI-WT-F09en_US
vra.culturalContextAmericanen_US
vra.techniqueconstruction (assembling), mosaic (process), metalworkingen_US
vra.worktypetoweren_US
dc.contributor.displaySimon Rodia (American builder, 1879-1965)en_US


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