Taggers go to extreme heights to graffiti 53-story high-rise, California videos show

TJ Macias
·2 min read
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One day in December, the letters just appeared on the ghost of an abandoned skyscraper — unnoticed, overlooked and haunting, the gleaming alabaster word “suor” stood alone and was only read by birds and a careful tourist visiting downtown Los Angeles.

It took a month for taggers to focus on other balconies of the unfinished building.
It took a month for taggers to focus on other balconies of the unfinished building.

But one month later, 27 stories of an unfinished high-rise burst with color, the graffiti art now demanding attention. The artists have been working overtime under the cloak of the night sky as police attempt to thwart their practices, a TikTok video shows.

The building once had a promising future. The Oceanwide Plaza, being across the street from Crypto.com Arena, was supposed to feature luxury condominiums, a hotel, mall and “the largest LED sign on the West Coast,” CoStar News reported in August. Construction on the plaza halted when overseas developer China Oceanwide said “it ran out of cash for the project,” leaving its partially done 53-story tower looming in the city’s skyline.

Neighboring buildings have been waking up to new graffiti despite attempts from the Los Angeles Police Department to shut it down, KTLA reported.

“I could see people up on the balcony were tagging and everything,” a witness named Daron Burgundy told KTLA. “Last night there was a crew on one of the floors and people were coming out and getting detained by LAPD and getting cited and released. People were still in there tagging while the cops were down here.”

The unfinished building still had a little way to go.
The unfinished building still had a little way to go.

More videos started going viral on TikTok, as people admired the boldness of the artists, and the art itself.

“I’m thinking about putting my phone on time lapse from my balcony so I could see the process cuz I keep waking up to new work being added,” one person said in the comment section.

“Okay but this is actually kinda dope…I’d hate to be the person to clean it though,” another noted.

Close up of the artwork.
Close up of the artwork.

“Can’t wait for the documentary to drop off everything leading to this later on this year lol,” someone expressed.

“Honestly the dedication is pretty cool,” one person said.