Graffiti Artists Tag 27 Floors of Abandoned Skyscraper in Los Angeles

An aerial view of the freshly graffitied Oceanwide Plaza skyscraper development in downtown Los Angeles Mario Tama / Getty Images Graffiti artists broke into downtown Los Angeles’ Oceanwide Plaza skyscraper development earlier this month and tagged over 27 floors with bright, bold letters. The work was a collaboration between local artists, who spray painted the complex over the course of three days with words like “Dank” and “Amen.” While the Oceanwide Plaza was meant to be a $1 billion real estate project in downtown L.A., it’s been empty since 2019. According to the Los Angeles Times’ Summer Lin and Robert Gauthier, the plan was to build three neighboring towers that would serve as luxury condominiums and apartments alongside hotel and retail space. However, construction stopped when the Beijing-based developer backing the project ran out of funds. The towers sit unfinished across from Crypto.com Arena, which recently hosted the Grammy Awards. In many ways, the structure provided a perfect canvas for local artists. “As much as people are entitled to not like what the graffiti writers do, I would encourage people to respect the effort to use the space that nobody else seems to be caring about right now,” Stefano Bloch,...