The Iconic Watts Towers in Los Angeles Will Get a $22 Million Campus Expansion Ahead of the 2028 Summer Olympics

Five acres of green space will surround the 17-structure landmark, a folk art masterpiece that an Italian immigrant built over the course of three decades

Christian Thorsberg | Daily Correspondent

July 31, 2026 2:05 p.m.

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A unique Los Angeles landmark, the Watts Towers, are set for a nearly two-year-long campus expansion and renovation project that will surround the folk art installation with greenery, updated infrastructure and space for additional public art.

The $22 million effort will focus on beautifying the area around the towers, which frequently serve as a gathering space for community events and live music, ahead of the 2028 Summer Olympics in L.A. Officials anticipate adding more than 30,000 square feet of park space, landscaping that reduces flooding and adds cooling features, new walkways and some 200 trees. The campus, which already has an amphitheater and cultural center, will encompass five acres.

“This is about investing in the people of Watts and creating a space the community can be proud of,” L.A. Mayor Karen Bass says in a statement. “Thanks to the dedication of our state, county and local partners, philanthropic supporters and community organizations, we’re one step closer to creating a greener, healthier and more vibrant campus that honors the legacy of Watts while serving generations of Angelenos to come.”

The Watts Towers are more than just spires, the tallest of which extends nearly 100 feet into the sky. Sabato “Simon” Rodia, an immigrant from Italy who came to the United States when he was a teenager to work in the coal mines of Pennsylvania, created the installation between 1921 and 1954. The artwork may have been inspired by the Festival of Lilies in Nola, Italy—an annual celebration featuring tall wooden obelisks. Rodia created his installation using tiles, glass, pottery fragments, seashells and found objects.

Since their inception, the Watts Towers have been both a lightning rod for bureaucratic scrutiny and a beloved beacon of community identity. In 1959, the city tried to demolish the installation, but residents fought back. An engineering test confirmed the towers’ structural integrity, and officials allowed them to remain intact. In 1965 they were designated a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument, and later that year stood through the Watts uprising, a six-day protest against police brutality that resulted in 34 deaths and thousands of arrests. Since that event, the towers have assumed additional importance as a symbol of neighborhood resilience and remembrance.

In 1990, the towers received recognition as a U.S. National Historic Landmark, and this past June, the World Monuments Fund named them one of ten “irreplaceable” heritage sites across the U.S. in need of preservation.

“The United States was built by people from every corner of the globe, shaped by Indigenous nations, early settlers, immigrant communities, and generations of cultural exchange,” Bénédicte de Montlaur, president and CEO of World Monuments Fund, said in a statement last month. “That complexity gave rise to some of America’s most enduring contributions. … Irreplaceable America is a call to protect the places that reflect the richness of that history, and the role heritage plays in education, community memory, and civic life.”

Securing funding for necessary repairs to the Watts Towers has been challenging. The new campus expansion project has been in the making for about a dozen years. Despite these difficulties, community determination to preserve the towers remains strong.

“It’s been the right time for a long time,” Rosie Lee Hooks, director of the Watts Towers Arts Center Campus, tells the Los Angeles Times’ Jane Horowitz. “It took so long because we’re in Watts. People are still scared to come down here. However, our community is very, very rich in culture.”

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Christian Thorsberg is an environmental writer and photographer from Chicago. His work, which often centers on freshwater issues, climate change and subsistence, has appeared in Circle of Blue, Sierra magazine, Discover magazine and Alaska Sporting Journal.