Nuestro Pueblo

The Watts Towers of Simon Rodia



The Scene:

Take the tour, the guide was great and it's the only way to appreciate the complex is from the inside. Buy tickets in the Art Center building which also houses small exhibits on African cloth & carvings.

The pueblo is surrounded by a little park with plenty of shade and a performance space.

Logistics:

The towers are easy to find off the 105 freeway.

Call ahead to make sure the towers are open. Tours start on the half hour. Though we bought 11:30 tickets and the tour began closer to noon.

There are flood lights placed throughout the "ship". I'd like to go back at night and see the complex lit up.

Factoids:


The complex is modeled after Marco Polo's ship. The towers are "masts." The largest tower served as a marriage alter.

Rodia named the ship Nuestro Pueblo or our town.

He was let go from the Malibu tile company for, ur um, appropriating expensive Italian tiles that were used on the structure.


The outside wall or "hull" is made out of old bed springs covered in concrete.

Rodia used the towers themselves as scaffolding. He often worked into the night, sipping a bottle of wine and singing Italian love songs.

One of the subsequent owners bought the property with the intention of opening a taco shop, only to find the city had the towers slated for demolition.

State engineers tested the integrity if the towers by attaching a steel cable to then and trying to pull the structure down. Makes sense, right? The cable snapped. I wouldn't have wanted to be in the way of the recoil.