Watts Towers

A new Art Center Campus is in development in the heart of the Watts community of Los Angeles, honoring the neighborhood’s rich history of art, assemblage and activism, while addressing the generations of social, economic, and environmental neglect—the systemic injustices that have resulted in Watts’ long suffering with the country’s worst air quality, soil contamination, poor health and high rates of poverty.

The 4.5-acre campus surrounds the Watts Towers, an iconic composition of 17 major sculptures of steel and mortar, designed and built by immigrant laborer and artist Sabato “Simon” Rodia. The towers are adorned with mosaic tiles, glass, clay, shells, rock and other elements that Rodia collected from the neighborhood and its residents, often recycling garbage. Completed in 1954 after 33 years of effort, the towers came to symbolize the underserved community’s creative spirit and pride.

With the Towers as a beacon, the Arts Center and its campus serve as a pillar of neighborhood empowerment. Collaborating with Studio Zewde, Sherwood is serving as civil engineer in an effort to restore the land and provide the community with more usable green space for events, educational activities, recreation and art. The new park-like landscape will add trees, open lawns, and natural bioswales that not only improve the neighborhood’s air, water and soil qualities but also honor Watts’ strong traditions of assemblage and healing through the creative process.

Sherwood’s role includes overall site assessment and conceptual design, creating ADA compliant walking paths throughout the site, implementing parking facilities, site grading, attenuating existing drainage inefficiencies, updating wet utility infrastructure throughout the site, implementing stormwater management practices in compliance with the City of Los Angeles Low Impact Development requirements, and making improvements to the public right of way adjacent to the site in accordance with City of Los Angeles B-Permit requirements.