Graffiti Towers Walking Tour with The Rent Brigade (September 6)

Join The Rent Brigade on August 16th at 5pm for a walking tour of the Graffiti Towers in DTLA, where participants will explore one of the city's most iconic contemporary landmarks of creativity, resistance, and collective action.

Originally approved under former Councilmember Jose Huizar, the Oceanwide Plaza towers were envisioned as a massive luxury development backed by Chinese investment firm Oceanwide Holdings. Construction stalled in 2019 after financing collapsed, leaving the project abandoned for years as the company entered bankruptcy. In January 2024, thousands of graffiti artists transformed the empty towers with hundreds of murals and tags in a spontaneous collective action that quickly captured international attention. What had once stood as a monument to speculative investment became an enduring symbol of Los Angeles' culture of creativity, community, and resistance amid an ongoing housing and homelessness crisis.

About the Tour

The tour begins with a walk around the perimeter of the former Oceanwide Plaza development, examining how the unfinished $1 billion luxury project became a symbol of the failures of speculative real estate development and corporate control over urban space. Participants will then walk across the street to the LA Live entertainment complex to discuss its legacy of community destruction and displacement, while exploring alternative visions for a more people-centered Downtown Los Angeles. The event will conclude with a debrief over drinks and refreshments at a nearby bar.

This tour may also be one of the last opportunities to experience the Graffiti Towers in their current form. As of July, plans have been announced to remove the graffiti from the buildings, making this a rare chance to learn about and witness one of the most significant acts of public artistic and political expression in recent Los Angeles history before it disappears.