LA’s graffiti-tagged skyscraper: a work of art – and symbol of city’s wider failings

An asparagus patch is how the architect Charles Moore described the lackluster skyline of downtown Los Angeles in the 1980s. “The tallest stalk and the shortest stalk are just alike, except that the tallest has shot father out of the ground.” This sprawling city of bungalows has never been known for the quality of its high-rise buildings, and not much has changed since Moore’s day. A 1950s ordinance dictating that every tower must have a flat roof was rescinded in 2014, spawning a handful of clumsy quiffs and crowns atop a fresh crop of swollen glass slabs . It only added further evidence to the notion that architects in this seismic city are probably better suited to staying on the ground. But, were he still with us, Moore might be cheered to find that, among the huddle of lookalike shafts, there now stands one particularly colourful cluster of asparagus stalks – and no thanks to its architect’s intentions. A planned trio of towers of luxury condos and a hotel, designed as mind-numbingly generic glass boxes by LA firm CallisonRTKL, instead is now a work of graffiti art. The three towers of Oceanwide Plaza were supposed to perch on top of...