Oceanwide Plaza Now a Canvas for LA Graffiti Artists

Rising above Figueroa Street, opposite the glare of Crypto.com Arena, three unfinished towers loom over downtown Los Angeles. 

To the drivers inching along the 110 Freeway, they are impossible to miss — not gleaming symbols of growth, but empty husks daubed in neon paint. 

Nicknamed the Graffiti Towers, the abandoned complex has become at once a landmark, a curiosity, and, for many, a civic embarrassment.

Conceived a decade ago as Oceanwide Plaza, the $1.2 billion development was meant to transform downtown. The Beijing-based conglomerate Oceanwide Holdings promised luxury condominiums, a five-star Park Hyatt hotel, and an indoor shopping mall glittering with electronic signage — a vision of Times Square transplanted to the West Coast.

By 2019, that dream collapsed. The company ran out of money, leaving the towers just over halfway complete. The building soon became a playground for trespassers. 

They scaled the heights and drenched the concrete in colour, turning a promised landmark of luxury into a 49-storey canvas of defiance.

“The Graffiti Towers have worldwide infamy at this point,” said Cassy Horton, co-founder of the DTLA Residents Association. “It’s like this beacon that shines and says, ‘Come create mischief down here and you won’t get in trouble. This is the spot to do it.”

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To business leaders in Los Angeles, the graffiti-clad towers are more than a passing irritation. With the city preparing to host the World Cup in 2026 and the Olympic Games two years after, there is growing concern that the hulking structures could showcase decline instead of vitality.

“Resolution of the Oceanwide Plaza saga can’t come soon enough,” one observer noted, echoing the growing impatience among residents and investors alike.

Architect Douglas Hanson, who designed the neighbouring Circa apartment complex, has even suggested masking the towers behind giant vinyl banners. 

“You can get good money for advertising in that neighbourhood,” he said. “Just drape them down and leave a little bit of the history of the building behind them.”

But placing banners over the towers will not fix the real problem. Completing the project could require another $1 billion, a huge challenge at a time when borrowing is expensive, construction costs are rising, and trade tariffs are scaring off buyers.

Meanwhile, what was once meant as downtown’s centerpiece has become a cautionary landmark — a stark reminder of how thin the line is between promise and failure.

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