Hardback
Retail Price: $34.95
“I Wanted To Do Something Big.” - Sabato Rodia
Watts Towers is an assemblage of interconnected sculptures built between 1921 and 1954 by an Italian immigrant, Sabato (Simon) Rodia, in the backyard of his residential property in what is now the City of Watts in South Central Los Angeles. Though Rodia referred to his creation as Nuestro Pueblo (Our Town), today it is known as the Watts Towers due to the three tall towers – two of which are nearly 100 feet high – which dominate the site. Often incorrectly described as reinforced concrete, Rodia’s sculptures are simple, steel framed structures covered with cement mortar decorated with an array of found materials including bottle glass, tile, pottery, and seashells. For reinforcement Rodia used whatever scrap metal he could find including pipe, channel iron, rods, and even bed frames. Rodia built the towers by himself using only simple, handheld tools without the aid of scaffolding or modern machinery and with no architectural plans or drawings to guide him. It may well be the tallest structure ever built by a single individual. In 1954 at the age of 75 Rodia deeded his property to a neighbor and moved to Martinez, California, never to return to Watts. Over the years Watts Towers has experienced periods of vandalism and neglect punctuated by major conservation campaigns that significantly altered the original appearance of the sculptures. Though it has lost some of its original luster over the past 100 years, Watts Towers remains a marvel of structural engineering and architecture and is widely recognized as one of the finest examples of “outsider art” in the United States, and an iconic symbol of Los Angeles.
Hardback
Format: 8.5 x 11 Color Casebound, 145 pages
Publisher: Outskirts Press (Sep 19, 2023)
ISBN10: 197726431X
ISBN13: 9781977264312
Genre: ART / Conservation & Preservation
Mark Gilberg received his BS and MSc degrees in inorganic chemistry from Stanford University and his Ph.D. in archaeological conservation from the University of London Institute of Archaeology. In 1983, he joined the Canadian Conservation Institute as a conservation scientist, and in 1987 he was appointed scientific officer in the Materials Conservation Division of the Australian Museum, Sydney, Australia. From 1994 to 2003. Dr. Gilberg was Research Director at the National Center for Preservation Technology and Training, an office of the National Park Service based in Natchitoches, Louisiana, which focuses on the application of science and technology to historic preservation. In 2005, he was appointed Director of the Conservation Center at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and supervised collection management and art preparation staff. Dr. Gilberg retired from LACMA in 2022 after serving as project manager for the restoration of Watts Towers from 2019-2021. 
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