the towers...
simon rodia spent 33 years building watts towers alone, without any help. when he finished in 1954, he deeded the lot to some neighbors and walked away. clearly it was his life's work. the towers were built from old tiles, bottles, pipes, steel frames, and 70,000 seashells. his day job as a tile setter and telephone repair man influenced his methods of building and decoration.
these images include the front and back covers as well as several pages from a beautiful little brochure from 1961. the towers are still standing, and are an absolutely glorious presence...
Labels: architecture, los angeles, seashells, simon rodia, towers
4 Comments:
What beautiful structures those towers are; especially seeing them from the ground and against the sky…I’ve recently come to really love towers in general, and metal latticed in particular, especially when found in natural landscapes. The post inspired me to put up my image of part of Tressa Prisbrey’s bottle village. A very different looking place, but made out of scraps and bottles and such... And she did it all by herself! In her 70s no less, I think…
yeah, i saw your bottle village post, i can't believe i've never been there, it's about a half hour from my house! i have to make an appointment this summer to visit.
hi steve
Clicked on you from Robert Olsen.
I'm sure you'd like Facteur Cheval
Jacques
hi jacques, thanks for the tip. i'd heard of the facteur cheval, but hadn't seen those images, which are totally wonderful! thanks for the tip.
nice blog yourself. steve
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