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Multiple new bids to takeover the unfinished Oceanwide Plaza complex in downtown LA were reported last week in what could be a positive sign for its future. As per connectcre.com's reporting, an auction has been scheduled for “mid-September.” The update comes after months of speculation... View full entry
With a potential fire sale of the residential, hotel and retail project approaching, a far more complex and expensive question looms over one of the region’s all-time real estate catastrophes: Can it be saved from the wrecking ball? — LA Times
With the fate of LA’s graffiti-tagged Oceanwide Plaza in the balance, the LA Times' Roger Vincent looked into the lack of viable options, finding several CRE experts’ opinions that simply "it’s not worth the risk" trying to "fix" the currently 60% complete three-tower development. This... View full entry
The Chinese owners of the stalled residential, hotel and retail complex towering over Crypto.com Arena have hired real estate brokers to sell the property to buyers who could restart the project after work stopped in 2019. Taggers recently covered its outer walls with graffiti visible from far away. — LA Times
The LA Times also reports the brokerage firm Colliers to have submitted an application estimating the property’s current value at $485 million and stating it is still just 60% completed. Another $865 million would be required to finish the block-scale development designed by CallisonRTKL. Some... View full entry
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... View full entry
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... View full entry
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... View full entry
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.
— LA Times
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... View full entry
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 [...]. — Pop-Up City
"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." View full entry
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. — NDTV
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... View full entry
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. — The Art Newspaper
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... View full entry
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.”
— dallasvoice.com
Image via Dallas Voice View full entry
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. — The Guardian
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... View full entry
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.”
— independent.co.uk
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... View full entry
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.
— fastcodesign.com
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... View full entry
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.
— theatlantic.com
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... View full entry
