'Dystopian' graffitied buildings were once meant to be full of luxury condos
Topics: Los Angeles, US News
Callum Jones
Featured Image Credit: Mario Tama/Getty Images
Topics: Los Angeles, US News
Now 'dystopian' graffitied buildings found in downtown Los Angeles once had extensive plans.
Oceanwide Plaza comprised of three towers and was meant to be a huge development featuring hundreds of luxury condos and a five-star hotel.
As per a report by Forbes, the buildings were once set to be the tallest residential towers in the whole of LA, though that never materialized.
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When the $1 billion project was set out in 2015, much anticipation rose as to what Chinese-backed developer Oceanwide Holdings would produce.
The development was set to offer jobs to local people while also providing residencies for thousands.
However, Oceanwide Holdings ran out of funding in 2019, and the unfinished buildings have been sat vacant ever since.
Five years after the project was abandoned, the buildings have made headlines as they are now covered in graffiti.
The three towers, which sit across from Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena, have been spray-painted with colorful block letters that read, ‘Crave,’ ‘Dank’ and ‘Amen’.
Other tags have also been graffitied onto the deserted buildings - a far cry away from what many locals thought the buildings would encompass nowadays.
A Los Angeles Times photographer claimed he recently saw around five young people with backpacks jump the fence around the structure.
"There’s no security. It’s dangerous," he said.
The unnamed snapper was there to film some drone footage of the graffiti on the towers for his own work.
Of course, a lot of folks see graffiti as art - and there is no doubt that the tagging on Figueroa Street is certainly impressive.
However, the onlooker is worried that people entering the building grounds could get hurt.
"Part of me likes this and the other part of me doesn’t," he told the LA Times.
Meanwhile, street photographer Daron Burgundy told KTLA-TV about how busy the taggers have been recently.
Speaking earlier this month, he said: "Last night there was a crew on one of the floors and people were coming out and getting detained by LAPD and getting cited and released. People were still in there tagging while the cops were down here."
The fact the buildings have been left unfinished has left many residents frustrated, with critics calling for the owners to do something about it.
"The city of LA has already served the property owners in order to comply with a deadline instructing them to fulfil their responsibilities," said Kevin de León, a member of the Los Angeles City Council, in a recent press conference.