Archinect - News

Oceanwide Plaza: Graffiti 'vandalism' or the greatest tag 'takeover' of all time?

2024-03-09T08:00:00-05:00

The New York Times has entered the debate surrounding LA's troubled Oceanwide Plaza development this week after social media and the outside press tied its celebrity status to the neglect of downtowns, housing rights issues, and their relationship to developer capitalism.

The Times piece follows news of the city’s recent order on Oceanwide to install a security fence to prevent against interlopers' vandalism and the 'public nuisance' the highly publicized graffiti artwork has turned the unfinished project into.

'Vandalism' is a charged term to apply in this case, but it has affected other sites near Downtown Los Angeles, like the copper wire-stripped Sixth Street Viaduct, in the midst of its delayed economic rebound. The street art community is here portrayed alongside BASE jumpers as a lawless quandary that considers their “takeover” a bar-raising move geared mainly at promotion and exposure. A smarter take is that taggers have the broader consensus of society so well-figured tha...

LA City Council orders graffiti removal on infamous unfinished Oceanwide Plaza towers

2024-02-12T13:33:00-05:00

City Council Members in Los Angeles have issued a mandate to owners of the graffiti-tagged Oceanview Plaza development in Downtown to remove the artwork weeks after its unfinished exterior became a national news item and the latest flash point in a debate over the citywide housing crisis that has lingered for a number of years.

By a vote of 14-0, Council Members approved Kevin de León’s motion calling for the city to foot the bill for cleaning up the stalled $1 billion towers if China-based developer Oceanwide fails to meet their February 17th deadline for removal. (CoStar first reported on the motion this weekend h/t Bizow.com.)

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Chop ‘em Down Films (@chopemdownfilms)

The internet sensation was covered in tags last month by artists apparently inspired by an early December operation in downtown Miami and able to bypass the security detail on site, which has been embroiled in a payment dispute with developers since last ye...

Los Angeles looks to crack down on street takeovers and climbing at its new Sixth Street Viaduct

2022-08-03T18:13:00-04:00

Last Friday, Los Angeles City Councilmember Kevin de León proposed an ordinance prohibiting street takeovers, drag racing, vandalism, and climbing the arches, among others, of the recently-opened Sixth Street Viaduct.

In the three weeks, since the $588 million Michael Maltzan-designed bridge opened, it has been shut down by the LAPD, including a stretch of four consecutive nights, due to takeovers, rowdy crowds, and other dangerous activities.

Previously on Archinect: The Sixth Street Viaduct is lit, and it’s making people in Los Angeles a little too rowdy

Along with the ordinance, de León also proposed a motion to calculate the cost of periodically closing the bridge to cars for pedestrians and cyclists only. His proposal is as follows (h/t Urbanize Los Angeles):

The Bureau of Engineering to report on the resources and timeline to install cameras, fencing, signage, and traffic control mitigations to increase public safety.
LAPD and the Department of Transportation to report on t...

The Sixth Street Viaduct is lit, and it’s making people in Los Angeles a little too rowdy

2022-07-26T12:42:00-04:00

For the third consecutive night, the Los Angeles Police Department said on Twitter that it was forced to shut down the 6th Street Viaduct, saying it was due to “questionable activity.” [...] The 3,500-foot bridge that connects Boyle Heights to downtown Los Angeles has been open to traffic for just two weeks, but it’s quickly become a popular spot for street takeovers, illegal racing, dangerous stunts and vandalism.

The 'party people' took over Michael Maltzan’s brand new bridge redesign within hours of its July 9th opening. Some reports indicated that at least 250 people gathered last weekend for a second night of what the LAPD called "illegal activity," which resulted in arrests and the attempted bombing of a KTLA reporter live on air. Pro skater Meklo Rivera pulled up later to showcase some risky moves on one of the span’s many inviting concrete arches, but the cops eventually shut it down.

Some are framing this as an organic, car-free outpouring of community. In a hard-line rebuke of their viewpoint, Mayoral frontrunner Kevin de Leon said: "Angelenos deserve architecturally stunning projects in their own neighborhood, and we won’t be deterred by a few scofflaws."

Guerrilla Grafting: fruit activists turn city trees into (free) food sources

2018-06-18T15:28:00-04:00

After pothole gardeners and pavement crack fillers, the Guerilla Grafters are the next urban hacking collective that wants to make streets a better places for everyone. The collective sees grafting branches of fruit trees onto trees in the streets as an opportunity to provide free access to food to urbanites. The process of adding a small branch to an existing city tree is considered vandalism. However, that doesn’t stop the Guerilla Grafters [...].

"The Guerrilla Grafters are not welcomed by everyone," writes Doris Tielemans for Pop-Up City about this branch (no pun intended) of Fruit Activism. "Most trees in cities don’t grow fruit for a reason."

Footwear giant Puma accused of defacing 17th century buildings in Delhi for shoe commercial

2017-11-22T13:38:00-05:00

Global sportswear giant Puma was accused today of irreversibly damaging 17th-century architecture in Delhi's historic quarter as part of an advertising stunt to promote a new line of shoes.

For their latest shoe ad dubbed "Suede Gully," Puma spraypainted large, colorful murals over several buildings in Old Delhi, a centuries-old quarter and heritage area. The stunt has conservationists outraged, claiming that the graffiti has caused permanent damage to the carved sandstone, limestone plaster and Lahori bricks.

Rules to protect Delhi's heritage sites do exist, as does one that specifically forbids advertising on historic buildings. However, laws protecting these sites from destruction are rarely enforced and the sportswear brand was granted all of the necessary permissions for their graffiti clad campaign.

DS+R's high-profile Zaryadye Park project in Moscow vandalized only days after its grand opening

2017-09-18T19:16:00-04:00

The Russian President Vladimir Putin opened Zaryadye Park near Red Square on 9 September, designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, creators of New York’s High Line, but what Moscow city officials are lauding as a “new symbol of Russia” preservationists are decrying as a travesty that impinges on the Kremlin and St Basil’s Cathedral, two of Russia’s most sacred landmarks.

Diller Scofidio + Renfro's Zaryadye Park proposal for an ambitious replacement of the colossal Soviet-era Hotel Russia near the Kremlin in central Moscow won the international competition back in 2013 with a "wild urbanism" concept.

Rendering of DS+R's Zaryadye Park project in central Moscow. Image courtesy of Mos.ru.

The project has faced criticism from the city's preservationists, reportedly exceeded initial cost estimates, and already suffered a major act of vandalism shortly after its festive opening with Russian President Vladimir Putin in attendance.

One of Zaryadye Park's highlights is its V-shaped 'Floating Bridge,' extending far above the Moscow River. Image courtesy of Mos.ru.

Philip Johnson-designed Interfaith Peace Chapel vandalized in Dallas

2017-01-09T21:13:00-05:00

Dallas police were at Cathedral of Hope [...] investigating graffiti painted onto the church’s Interfaith Peace Chapel. The building was vandalized at about 11 p.m. on Wednesday night, according to the Rev. Neil Cazares-Thomas, CoH’s lead pastor. [...] The spray-painted message included a Louisiana phone number and referred to a car as a “Brown Chivy Suburbin.” The name “Johntion Kimbrou” — possibly “Kimbrow” — was also painted on the church, along with a reference to “kitty porn.”

Image via Dallas Voice

Defacing the stone: a history of vandalism on famous architectural landmarks

2017-01-03T21:24:00-05:00

For as long as there have been landmarks, there have been people willing to deface them in the name of politics, art, fame or sheer stupidity.

From the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge to the Trevi fountain in Rome, this Guardian article explores a brief history of temporary vandalism on famous landmarks (and it's not just artfully placed tarps: try a dangling VW Beetle!).

From the annals of the vandals:

Detroit issues arrest for "vandal" Shepard Fairey

2015-07-03T12:48:00-04:00

World famous street artist Shepard Fairey - the man whose “Hope” poster massively boosted Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign – has described an attempt to arrest him by Detroit police as “hilarious” after he was commissioned to do a mural in the city. Last night authorities issued an arrest warrant for Fairey, 45, on graffiti charges with Police Sergeant Rebecca McKay issuing a statement warning: “Just because he’s a well-known artist does not take away from the fact that he is also a vandal.”

Detroit's most recent charge against Fairey is for damages amounting to $9,100, caused by nine of Fairey's works. Detroit police are asking that he turn himself in, and say that he'll be arrested should he ever return to Detroit. Fairey doesn't seem to be phased, calling the charges "hilarious". Throughout his career, Fairey has been arrested 17 times.

More accounts of so-called "vandalism", both solicited and not:

Manchester man gets potholes fixed by drawing giant penises around them

2015-04-28T13:22:00-04:00

After claiming he saw his friends injured in pothole-related bike accidents, one anonymous resident has taken matters into his own hands. He goes by Wanksy. And using what appears to be an industrial level chalk, he draws penises around the potholes, creating moments of visual terrorism that the city can’t ignore. [...] within 48 hours of Wanksy’s efforts, many of Manchester’s problematic potholes, which had been a nuisance for years, were filled. Within a week, even more were fixed.

This recent case of vandalism for the public good, albeit juvenile and a bit obscene, seems to have gotten the job done. It's hard to make the case that this is the best tactic for enacting public safety measures, but Wanksy seems to have hit a sweet spot of using public shaming and vandalism to increase awareness and provoke action. Plus, it's way funnier than a hashtag.

Here are a few examples of Wanksy's public work:

"Kant is a moron" graffitied on the philosopher's home

2015-03-20T20:01:00-04:00

Russian police say they're looking for the intellectually minded miscreants who graffitied "Kant is a moron"—along with a flower and heart—on the philosopher's home outside Kaliningrad. With Arthur Schopenhauer dead for 155 years, however, authorities start off with few strong leads.

The derelict house does look like an easy target for vandalism, but apparently the philosopher never even actually lived inside. The Atlantic points out that the local structure Kant lived in was destroyed sometime in the 19th century, and the tagged building was in fact a new one built on the same site. Which, apparently, relieves The Atlantic of treating this as a preservationist issue, and instead gives free reign to cram in as many of Kant's philosophical principles as possible. See below:

"They say no reason, pure or otherwise, was given for the crime."
"Even the timing of the crime is unclear—journalists discovered the note, at once crude and rather refined, while exploring Kant's derelict home."
"But for those who would reclaim the discipline's more raucous reputation of the past, the graffiti is perhaps a positive sign, and maybe the first salvo in a war between Situationists and Enlightenment thinkers. Indeed, a critic of Kant's ideas might feel a categorical imperative to tak...

Detroit's struggle to distinguish between graffiti (boo!) and murals (yay!)

2015-02-20T14:50:00-05:00

But how to draw the distinction between unauthorized graffiti and murals? Late last year, city officials issued thousands of dollars worth of fines before admitting they couldn't tell the difference between vandalism and authorized artwork (they eventually dismissed the fines). To correct this, Castañeda-López says the city is working on the seemingly Herculean task of creating a registry for all Detroit's existing street art.

Vandals break into the historic New York State Pavilion and set fire to a stolen van, damaging the 50-year-old terrazzo map

2014-07-24T18:41:00-04:00

Vandals broke into the historic New York State Pavilion last weekend, setting a stolen van on fire and damaging a piece of its deteriorating terrazzo map, park watchdogs said. The shocking mayhem in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park was heartbreaking for volunteers who have been working for years to spruce up the aging 1964 World’s Fair relic.

Google Adds Graffiti to Its Art Portfolio

2014-06-20T14:10:00-04:00

Using images provided by cultural organizations worldwide, some of which were captured with Google’s Street View camera technology, [the Google Cultural Institute's Street Art Project] includes street art from around the globe, including work that no longer exists [...] Google is the latest organization to wade into debates about how or whether to institutionalize, let alone commercialize, art that is ephemeral and often willfully created subversively.

Le Corbusier's Ronchamp Chapel vandalized

2014-01-22T14:53:00-05:00

Vandals have smashed an ‘irreplaceable’ stained-glass window after breaking into Le Corbusier’s Ronchamp Chapel in eastern France. The hand-painted, coloured glass window designed by the Swiss architect in the early 1950s was destroyed, it is understood, as the intruders forced entry into the famous Chapel of Notre Dame du Haut. Once inside the vandals lifted a concrete collection box and threw it outside.

Vandalism at the Louvre Lens references "Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth" group

2013-02-08T20:29:00-05:00

The woman wrote “AE911” on the bottom right-hand corner of the painting before she was challenged by a security guard and a visitor. A Louvre conservation expert cleaned off the writing yesterday and the unharmed painting will be on show to the public once again this morning. “AE911Truth” is the name of a website for Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth, a group which claims that the official version of the terrorist attacks on Manhattan and Washington on 11 September 2001 is a cover-up.

Stolen lettering from Wright's Unity Temple re-created, restored

2012-07-06T15:04:00-04:00

Soon after the September 2010 theft, leaders of the Unitarian Universalist church and the restoration foundation assembled a team of architects, Wright scholars and others to help design precise replicas of the letters and determine how to attach them to the structure. After extensive research, replicas were crafted and installed in May. As shiny as experts believe the originals looked when the church was dedicated in 1909, the new letters look brighter than the stolen ones...