About the Towers

The Watts Towers, consisting of nine major sculptures, are the work of one man, Simon Rodia. The intricate towers and surrounding wall were built on a small triangular site at 1765 107th Street East in Watts, on one-tenth of an acre (400 square meters) edging the Pacific Electric Railway Red Car tracks where Rodia settled sometime between 1921 and 1925.

Although the dates of 1921 and 1923 are both inscribed into the Towers' decoration, the exact date of Rodia's initiation of his monumental endeavor is unknown. What is clear is that starting in his early forties, he worked on them for the next thirty-plus years, every day, creating a masterpiece that has become the poster image for the environmental art genre.

The tallest of the towers stands 99.5 feet high and contains the longest slender reinforced concrete column in the world. The main vertical legs of the sculptures are slender columns containing internal steel reinforcements, tied with wire and wrapped with wire mesh.

Embedded in the mortar of the towers are the remnants of all sorts of popular household items of the times - from ceramic tiles to mirrors to the brilliant blue and green broken glass of old 7-Up and Milk of Magnesia bottles.

While the Towers fall into no strict art category, international authorities and the general public here at home have lauded them as a unique monument to the human spirit and the perseverance of a singular vision. The Towers of Simon Rodia are a National Historic Landmark and are listed on the National Registry of Historic Places.