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Marvin Rios
Dr. Ramsey
Portfolio - The Watts Towers
28 April 2014
The Future of the Watts Towers
Author Bio
Marvin Rios is a junior at the University of Southern California pursuing a degree in
Mechanical Engineering. Originally from Fresno, California, since his arrival in Los Angeles,
he’s always found its culture and monuments captivating. He originally learned about the Watts
Towers and their importance to the Watts community through his Los Angeles Stories GE
course. His drive to learn more about Los Angeles and his engineering background ultimately
raised his interest and led him to write this piece.
Abstract
The Watts Towers have a unique composition and a history. Despite being designed to
last for generations, their composition and location in Southern California are a constant threat to
the Watts Towers structure. It multiple occasions, cracking of the cement mortar is being found.
The UCLA Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Los Angeles County
Museum of Arts (LACMA) are currently researching the Watts Towers’ daily movement and
tilting patterns with the intent of developing a new mortar to adequately seal the Watts Towers’
cracks. With their success, we can feasibly expect to be structurally secure for generations to
come.
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Introduction
As Denis Waitley, an American author and motivational speaker, once said, “You have
all the reason in the world to achieve your grandest dreams. Imagination plus innovation equals
realization.” If there’s anyone who followed this quote to its fullest, it would be Simon Rodia,
the creator of the Watts Towers (See Fig.1). Beginning in 1921 and across a 30 year period,
Simon Rodia built one of the finest and most elegant pieces of art. For over 90 years, the Watts
Towers have been a testament of a man’s imagination and his technical ability. Simon Rodia
worked without any written plans, using his imagination and his innovative abilities to plan his
next move [1]. Now, present day, while his Towers
have managed to structurally remain standing, due to a
lack of conservation efforts throughout their history,
they remain in a rundown state. They are currently the
subject of a preservation effort spearheaded by the Los
Angeles County Museum of Arts (LACMA) and the
UCLA Department of Civil and Environmental
Engineering. This article explores the Watts Towers’ 90
year history and the technical findings by the
conservation efforts that are ongoing on the Watts
Towers.
What are the Watts Towers?
Figure 1: A Ground View of the Watts Towers.
http://www.lacma.org/art/exhibition/wattstowers
The Watts Towers are a series of structures, single-handedly built by Italian immigrant
Simon Rodia between 1921 and 1955 in Watts, California. It contains three towers, with the
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central and tallest tower rising 99 feet and 6 inches in height [1]. Simon Rodia built a total of 17
structures, including a gazebo, a fountain, a ship and a fish pond [2]. The foundation is
composed of rebar and scrap steel, while “glazed tiles, broken pottery, seashells and shards of
colored glass bottles” are used as decorations for the structures (See Fig. 2) [3]. Simon Rodia
built the Watts Towers single-handedly
without any machine tools or drills [2],
thus leaving a lack of bolts, rivets, or
welds in the structure [3].
Simon Rodia was a master cement
finisher by trade [4]. His experience
working with cement finishing and his
ingenuity allowed him to develop a
Figure 2: A Picture of the Watts Tower's Entrance to the Lot. Source:
http://www.wattstowers.us/watts_towers_views/11.htm
unique thin-shell concrete method, which was new in his time [5]. The thin-shell concrete
method allowed the Watts Towers to be built to achieve a tall height, while remain light weight
[5]. This helped the Watts Towers withstand large loads under compression [5]. Further, Simon
Rodia would add outside columns and intersecting rings to strengthen its internal structure [5].
Given that he built the Watts Towers over a 30 year period, he consistently analyzed and
strengthened its foundation to create an internal structure meant to last for generations.
The History of the Watts Towers
Simon Rodia completed building the Watts Towers in 1955. Once he felt his work was
complete, he donated the Watts Towers to his neighbor and left Watts, California [2]. The Watts
Towers underwent a series of changes in ownership until two arts students from USC, Bill
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Cartwright and Nicholar King, purchased the Towers with the intentions to build an art center
[6]. With a rise in popularity, there began a controversy with the Towers, as the city of Los
Angeles viewed the Watts Towers as a potential hazard to its surroundings. This prompted the
city of Los Angeles to propose a demolition of the Watts Towers. However, in 1959, after a
strong presence of local support for the Watts Towers from the community, Bud Goldstone, an
aeronautical engineer who devoted over 50 years to the Watts Towers’ preservation efforts,
conducted a load test to “determine whether the towers met local building codes and were
unhazardous to adjacent dwellings” [7]. For the load test, Goldstone deemed a 10,000 pound
load to be realistic for all the forces the Watts Towers could potentially be subject to, including
wind and thermal stress [7]. The Watts Towers underwent and passed Goldstone’s load test,
easily supporting the 10,000 pound load, which ultimately resulted in the city of Los Angeles
receiving ownership of the Watts Towers.
In the following years, the city of Los Angeles would neglect the Watts Towers. With the
exception of the construction of Watts Towers Arts Center, very few conservation efforts were
performed or attempted. In 1994, during the Northridge Earthquake, the Watts Towers
underwent large amounts of stress from the earthquake’s vibrations. The Northridge earthquake
caused a considerable amount of damage to the Watts Towers, prompting the city of Los Angeles
to initiate a 7-year $1.9 million restoration project [3]. In 2000, during the restoration project,
Bud Goldstone and the city of Los Angeles conducted an inspection and found “a couple of
hundred cracks that had formed in the members” [4]. The Watts Towers’ cracks were sealed, the
stable condition was restored, and the 7-year restoration project was completed in 2001.
Recently, the Los Angeles County Museum of Arts (LACMA) has taken possession of
the Watts Towers. Despite the restoration project, cracks continued to surface on the Watts
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Towers’ mortar. In 2011, LACMA, spearheaded by their Senior Scientist Frank Preusser, began
researching methods to combat the cracking of the mortar [6]. In addition, they have brought in
professors Ertugrul Taciroglu and Robert Nigbor from the UCLA Department of Civil and
Environmental Engineering and their team of undergraduate and graduate students [8]. Together
they hope to trace crack displacements, among other factors, to find a solution to prevent and
minimize the Watts Towers’ cracking.
Technical Problems and Research Discoveries of the Watts Towers in the Modern Day
Despite the Watts Towers’ internal structure being structurally stable, outside forces and
time have begun and will continue to take a toll on the Watts Towers. Located in Watts,
California, the Watts Towers remain in close proximity of the Pacific Ocean. The close
proximity leaves its structural steel composition vulnerable to moisture and corrosion [1].
Further, the Towers remain exposed to sun consistently throughout the year. As heat causes the
expansion and contraction of metals, current research measured the tallest tower “moving an inch
between sunrise and sunset” [8]. In addition, the presence of the San Andreas Fault also poses a
potential issue to the Watts Towers. The Watts Towers have had to endure a number of
earthquakes throughout their history, with the 1994 Northridge Earthquake being the one taking
the largest toll. Keeping in mind that the outside surface is composed mainly of cement mortar,
which is a brittle material, earthquakes over time have caused the cement mortar to crack. The
cracking of the outside exposes its internal composition to rust, while breaking and loosening the
decoration ornaments [8]. Looking at how these factors integrate together, we see the numerous
earthquakes creating cracks in the mortar, which is supplemented by the expansion and
contraction of the metals from heat, allowing the inner structure to be weakened by corrosion. It
is evident that their location and materials selection has resulted in the Watts Towers having a
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“built-in instability” [1], which causes constant concerns within the engineering and arts
communities.
LACMA and the UCLA Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering have
extensively been researching to find a method to secure the future of the Watts Towers (See Fig.
3). Their goals are to “formulate a new
type of mortar to more effectively seal the
tower’s cracks” [8]. Throughout the last
couple of years, they have measured daily
crack movements, daily tilting patterns,
and the thermal effects on the Watts
Towers [9]. While their research remains
relatively new, they have found some
success. To date, they’ve managed to
Figure 3: UCLA Department of Civil and Environmental
Engineering places measuring instruments on the Watts Towers.
Source: http://today.ucla.edu/portal/ut/watts-towers247989.aspx?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=tweet&utm_ca
mpaign=wattstowers
measure crack movements within the mortar. They’ve followed two cracks and their movements
and found that at the peak, the cracks move anywhere between 0.00014 and 0.00083 inches in a
day [9]. Subsequently, they found that cracks either follow a traditional or an inverse relationship
with temperature; as temperature rises, cracks either open or close [9]. They have further traced
thermal effects on the Towers. They have found that, internally, during the day there is a
maximum temperature difference of approximately 10 ºC in the largest tower, causing a “peakto-peak tip displacement… between 1 and 2 inches” [9]. Lastly, they have found that differential
heating further causes the largest tower to lean away from the sun [9]. These are critical findings
to the current conservation efforts for the UCLA Department of Civil and Environmental
Engineering, as they plan to continue to monitor the Tower’s movements. With more research
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and success of the UCLA Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, LACMA hopes
to develop a mortar that can secure the future of the Watts Towers.
Future Outlook
While the future of the Watts Towers may not be secured, the current conservation efforts
look promising. LACMA and the UCLA Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
have found information that can be used to begin to develop a cement mortar to fill the ever
present cracks. With the Watts Towers consistently facing a lack of funding, discovering a
method of stabilizing the Watts Towers’ deterioration will be vital to their future. Simon Rodia
built the Watts Towers with the intention of them lasting for decades. The have played a
symbolic role in Los Angeles’ history and they’re a structural wonder to the Arts community.
With success in the current research project, and with the development of the adequate mortar,
we can expect to see the Watts Towers standing for generations to come.
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References
[1]
Christopher Reynolds. (2003, June 12). Issue is up in the air; Safety concerns at the
Watts Towers prompt state to order a review. The city says there is no risk. (Home
Edition). [Online] Available: http://www.latimes.com/
[2]
Sara Catania. (2005, Oct 23) Towers of Power; Simon Rodia’s masterwork is inseparable
from its site on a dead-end street in Watts. Which is another good reason to stop ignoring
it. (Home Edition). [Online] Available: http://www.latimes.com/
[3]
K. Reich (2001, Sep 29). Los Angeles; An Icon Restored, Reopened; Landmark: The
Watts Towers, damaged in the Northridge quake, are back in business thanks to a FEMA
grant and seven years of repairs: (Home Edition) [Online]. Available:
http://www.latimes.com
[4]
The City Project (2010). Save Watts Towers! [Online]. Available:
http://www.cityprojectca.org
[5]
Bud Goldstone and Arloa Paquin Goldstone, “Building Techniques,” in The Los Angeles
Watts Towers. Los Angeles. Getty Conservation Institute, 1997, pp. 45-62.
[6]
Avishay Artsy (2013 Apr 1) Watts Towers, iconic LA landmark, focus of conservation
efforts. [Online]. Available: http://www.kcrw.com/
[7]
N.J. Goldstone, “Structural test of hand-built tower,” Experimental Mechanics, vol. 3,
Issue 1, pp. 8-13, Jan 1963.
[8]
Judy Lin. (2013, Aug 21). UCLA engineers work to keep Watts Towers from cracking
[Online]. Available: http://today.ucla.edu
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[9]
Jackson English. "Wind, Thermal, and Earthquake Monitoring of the Watts Towers" M.S
thesis, Dept. of Civil and Environ. Eng., Univ. of California, Los Angeles, LA, CA, 2013.