'Dystopian' graffitied building was once meant to be full of luxury condos
A clip has gone viral for its 'visually stunning' graffiti covering an abandoned real estate project in downtown Los Angeles.
Majestic drone footage shows the mass design spread across three towers whereby dozens of graffiti artists came together, painting the windows of at least 27 floors.
The windows are plastered with colourful blocks of letters and words, one reads 'Forever Living Krazy' among other words like 'Crave' and 'Amen'.
As frustrated as the local authorities are, calling it an 'eyesore', it has received a lot of positive feedback from the online community.
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One social media user shared the footage on X and captioned: 'I feel like the graffiti makes the buildings look way cooler honestly. Like dystopian era type shi'.
Another posted her thoughts on TikTok, calling the graffiti a 'call to action' from the poor to the rich.
'In order to accomplish something this spectacular, these artists came together, worked together, networked together, they probably shared utensils together to get this accomplished,' the TikToker said.
The $1 billion project started construction in 2015 and was originally intended to be 40 storeys worth of luxury condos - more than 500 in total - and a five-star hotel. Spanning an entire square city block, the complex was set to be the tallest residential tower in the city.
However, the project was put to a halt in 2019 when the Chinese-backed developer Oceanwide Holdings ran out of funding. Now, it sits vacant in the centre of a city suffering from an increased housing crisis.
Stefano Bloch, a cultural geographer and former graffiti artist, commented on the project: 'This is people taking it upon themselves to use a space that in many ways was abandoned by people with money and power.
'In the 1990s, there was this moral panic about graffiti being linked to gangs, but times have changed. Even if people don’t like it - and they’re entitled not to like it - they understand that graffiti is not connected to violence.'
One of the graffiti artists who worked on the top of the first tower reportedly said at the time: 'Let’s all get together and paint it up. Make LA graffiti history.'
Another supporter of the movement remarked: 'This building has needed love for years. If the owners aren’t doing anything about it, the streets of LA are happy to make something out of it.'