Graffiti News

Crews have begun washing the graffiti off the abandoned Oceanwide Plaza skyscrapers in downtown Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Times reported on 31 July 2026 that contractors power-washed a section during a test run on 22 July 2026, and that clearing all three towers will take about 90 days.

Taggers reached the facades in early 2024

The graffiti went up in early 2024. According to the Los Angeles Times, taggers climbed through broken fencing into the stalled towers, took the stairs to the roofs, and some lowered themselves on ropes to spray images hundreds of feet in the air. Two of the buildings stand 42 and 54 storeys tall. They sit beside Crypto.com Arena and the 110 Freeway, which is why the work became visible to anyone driving through downtown and why the buildings picked up the informal name the graffiti towers.

Three towers sat empty because the money ran out

Oceanwide Plaza was left unfinished after its developer ran out of funds. The Los Angeles Times reported that Beijing-based Oceanwide Holdings bought the site in 2014, when it was an asphalt lot used for event parking. The plan was luxury condominiums, apartments, a five-star Park Hyatt hotel and an indoor mall of shops and restaurants, with a large electronic sign on the facade meant to bring a flavour of Times Square to Figueroa Street.

Oceanwide Holdings spent about $1.2 billion before running out of money in 2019. Roger Vincent, the Los Angeles Times commercial real estate reporter, said: "I have been covering commercial real estate in L.A. since the mid-1980s, and I have never seen a high-rise project meltdown anywhere close to this scale." Construction stopped at roughly 60% complete, meaning the shells were finished but no interior work had been done — a state Vincent called very unusual.

The city was split between admiration and embarrassment

Reaction in Los Angeles was never one thing. The Los Angeles Times reported that some Angelenos and visitors were inspired by the audacity and skill of the painters. BASE jumpers parachuted from the towers, and a performance artist filmed himself walking a one-inch slackline strung between two of the 42-storey buildings.

The other view is just as clear. Vincent said "it's safe to say that business leaders and most residents are thrilled to have the graffiti being removed," describing tags that were "applied unchecked and stayed there for years, which implied a sense of lawlessness downtown." Cassy Horton, co-founder of the Downtown Los Angeles Residents Assn., told the Los Angeles Times: "The Graffiti Towers have worldwide infamy at this point. It's like this beacon that shines and says, 'Come create mischief down here and you won't get in trouble."

Removal is window-cleaning work at 500 feet

Taking the paint down is its own operation. The Los Angeles Times reported that the cleanup will take about 90 days and that some of the work is physically risky, requiring crews to be lowered in suspended scaffolds — swing stages, the rigs window cleaners use.

The site is also changing hands. A partnership led by Kali P. Chaudhuri, whose KPC Development Co. owns and builds commercial properties in California and India, is buying the development together with Lendlease, the original contractor for the project. According to Vincent, the buyer intends to finish the towers as originally planned, with 504 residential units, a luxury hotel and a shopping centre.

Everything painted outdoors is temporary

Oceanwide Plaza is an extreme case of an ordinary outcome. Work made on the street gets buffed, painted over, or demolished with the building that carried it. In 90 days the most conspicuous graffiti in Los Angeles will exist only in photographs.

That is why the record matters. Wallscape's map and feed exist to hold what is on the wall right now, tied to where it is. A photo taken today is often the only remaining evidence that a piece was ever there.

One thing is worth stating plainly. Trespass and criminal damage are real legal exposure, and the painting at Oceanwide Plaza involved climbing into a closed construction site. Wallscape does not encourage unpermitted painting. But the argument the towers provoked — over who decides what a skyline looks like — outlasts the paint.