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Topic: Simon Rodia

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Watts Towers of Simon Rodia State Historic Park

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	Life & Times Arts \| Watts Towers Photo Gallery
		Rodia was becoming increasingly solitary, isolating himself from his neighbors, angry at the world and what he saw as its disintegrating values.
		Local children, gleaning from their parents that he was a crazy old man, tossed rocks and climbed over the walls to smoke and drink; treasure hunters unearthed sections and smashed the crockery, certain there was a fortune buried underneath; debris and trash accumulated.
		Rodia's cottage, located within the enclosing wall, burned to the ground in 1955 or 1956, likely a result of arson, and the area within continued to deteriorate.
	www.kcet.org /lifeandtimes/arts/watts_history.php (970 words)

	simon rodia's watts towers (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-19)
		Built single-handedly by Simon Rodia over a period of 33 years, the Watts Towers consists of nine major sculptural forms made of steel and covered with mortar embedded with pieces of ceramic tile, pottery shards, sea shells, and broken glass.
		Simon Rodia, also known as Sabato "Sam" Rodia and "Don Simon" by some of his neighbors and visitors, was born in 1879 in the town of Campania in southern Italy.
		From 1921 to 1954, Rodia surrounded his house with three tall sendor towers; a patio; a gazebo containing a circular bench, 3 bird baths, and a spire 38 feet tall; and a structure he called the "Ship of Marco Polo" which has a 28-foot tall spire.
	www.arts.ufl.edu /art/rt_room/watts/tower.html (328 words)

	OFF THE MAP . Travelogue . Simon Rodia \| PBS
		The Watts Towers were built by Italian immigrant Simon Rodia on his triangular lot in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Watts over the course of 33 years.
		Born in Southern Italy in 1879, Simon Rodia had come to the United States with an older brother in the mid-1890s.
		Rodia worked without the aid of scaffolding, building up one level at a time, and eventually reaching heights of nearly 100 feet.
	www.pbs.org /independentlens/offthemap/html/travelogue_artist_6.htm?true (1104 words)

	Sam Rodia and the Watts Towers
		Rodia’s Watts Towers, designated as a National Historic Landmark by the United States Department of the Interior in 1990, are now a component site of the California State Parks, managed by the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department.
		Barely five feet tall, the uneducated Rodia worked from the 1920’s to the 1950’s without helpers or scaffolding to build unique and majestic spires of reinforced concrete rising to a hundred feet, decorated with a mosaic of tile, seashells, pottery, ceramics, rocks and glass – even broken 7-Up and Milk of Magnesia bottles.
		Rodia abandoned the completed towers in 1954 and returned to the San Francisco Bay area, as he stated, to die among his relatives.
	www.ibuildthetower.com /html/film.html (644 words)

	Watts Towers - Dorchester Magazine
		The connection that Rodia, who by now was known as Simon, made with the local children is one that Greenfield is keen to relay to the thousands of kids that now pass through the various classes held at his Arts Center.
		There is speculation that Rodia's structures were inspired by the giant ceremonial towers he had seen as a young boy in the annual Giglio festival back in Italy, but because of his limited intellect and vocabulary he was never able to fully express his motivation for building the towers.
		The Committee for Simon Rodia's Towers in Watts was formed and its long struggle for their preservation began with a load test performed on one fateful day in 1959 that would determine the towers' future.
	mysite.verizon.net /res8xin8/siouxsie.html (1666 words)

	Los Angeles - Watts, California - Simon Rodia - Watts Junk Towers
		A documentary of Simon Rodia and the building of the Watts Towers is available for free download from Archive.org...
		Simon talks in an italian accent about what compelled him to create this LA landmark.
		Such was the lot of Simon Rodia, an Italian immigrant who designed and built (without the aid of ladders) Watts Towers, the tallest of which is almost 100 feet high.
	www.roadsideamerica.com /tips/getAttraction.php3?tip_AttractionNo==2776 (509 words)

	Paul M. Benavidez Studio • "Nuestro Pueblo, An Homage to Simon Rodia"
		The show is comprised of the artwork of Joseph Beckles, Paul Benavidez, Charles Dickson, Rick Frausto, Keido Fukazawa, Arloa Paquin Goldstone, Ronald C. Gray, Ellen Grim, Larry Harris, Flaven Hyland, Karen Koblitz, Melinda Marie Moore, Elliott Pinkney, Judson Powell, Noah Purifoy, Seymour Rosen, Elad Sivad, and Timothy Washington.
		Echoing the creative style of Simon Rodia, the works included in the show display a varying array of color, assemblage, and mosaic.
		Also included are literal representations of the Towers in sculpture, photography, drawing and painting, created in the tribute to Rodia's monument.
	www.paulbenavidez.com /press_release.html (216 words)

	Watts Towers at AllExperts
		The Towers were built by Italian immigrant construction worker Sabato ("Sam" or "Simon") Rodia in his spare time over a period of 33 years, commencing construction in 1921 and completed them in 1954.
		Rodia reportedly did not get along with his neighbors, some of whom allowed their children to vandalize his work.
		The Watts Towers, and their creator Simon Rodia's friendship with a 10-year-old boy, are a major focus of "Daniel and The Towers", a 1987 Made-for-TV movie.
	en.allexperts.com /e/w/wa/watts_towers.htm (875 words)

	Simon Rodia Towers, Watts
		The tower, named after its builder Simon Rodia, stands in East 107th Street No. 1765, and you can reach it via the Harbor Freeway, exit 14, Gage Avenue.
		In 1921 Simon Rodia, an immigrant builder and carpenter from Naples, began to build "his" four towers from cement, steel poles and wire-netting, clad with something like 70,000 mussel-shells and glass, tile and mirror fragments.
		Simon Rodia was certainly no trained architect, but - scorning all help - created buildings with an almost Gothic effect, which can best be compared with the architecture of the Spaniard Antonio Gaudi.
	www.planetware.com /los-angeles/watts-simon-rodia-towers-us-ca-srt.htm (266 words)

	Sam Rodia ' s Watts Towers
		Rodia's older brother immigrated to the United States in 1895 and settled in Pennsylvania where he worked in the coal mines.
		Little is known about his early life in the United States except that he moved to the west coast and found work in rock quarries and logging and railroad camps as a construction worker.
		In 1955, when Rodia was approaching 75, he deeded his property to a neighbor and retired to Martinez, California to be near his family.
	www.wattstowers.us /simon_rodia.htm (190 words)

	The Towers of Simon Rodia
		Rodia was born in 1879, as was Albert Einstein.
		The Towers of Simon Rodia, consisting of nine major sculptures constructed of structural steel and covered with mortar, are the work of one man - Simon Rodia.
		Simon's monument to perseverence and dedication features a gazebo with a circular bench, three bird baths, a center column and a spire reaching a height of 38 feet.
	www.trywatts.com /towers.htm (469 words)

	Places, Earth, Watts Towers
		Simon Rodia (1879 - 1965) chose this one-tenth of an acre residential lot for two basic reasons, the adjacent Pacific Electric Railway Red Car tracks (now removed), cutting diagonally along the propery, produced a long triangular shape, remeniscent of a ship and Simon used the track rails in bending his curved steal shapes.
		Simon included two mailboxes in the wall and covered the exterior walls of the house in the same fashion.
		After Simon's departure, there was a fire that destroyed the house, the city feared the towers would collapse and injure someone so the towers were sentenced to be destroyed, but the towers stood firm and the cable tied to a truck broke.
	www.placesearth.com /USA/California/LA/code/WattsTowers1.shtml (818 words)

	Simon Rodia - Great Buildings Online
		Untrained as an architect, engineer, or builder, Simon Rodia created a complex of towers that rose over one hundred feet tall.
		Composed of structural steel rods and circular hoops connected by spokes, the towers incorporate a sparkling mosaic of found materials including pottery, seashells, and glass.
		Rodia's house, destroyed by fire in 1957, resided within the complex.
	www.greatbuildings.com /architects/Simon_Rodia.html (164 words)

	wattspaper
		Rodia seems to have learned by trial and error, utilizing skills he had acquired as a laborer and then experimenting with materials and teaching himself what he needed to know in order to do what he decided he wanted to do at each subsequent step of his project.
		Rodia used a fountain as a baptismal fount, and he apparently preached at tent revivals on the subject of “True Freedom: Freedom of Spirit and Soul.” The unmistakable similarities between the Rodia’s work and the structures in the Gigli celebration indicate some connection to Catholicism.
		Rodia never made plans for the structure, but when you see drawings of them, they appear to be plans for a structure as much as a picture of something finished.
	myweb.lmu.edu /pharris/Wattspaper.html (8554 words)

	Bathtub Art Museum--Watt's Bathtub or Baptismal Font
		Simon Rodia (aka Simon Rodilla, Don Simon) was born in 1879 in Italy.
		For 33 years Simon Rodia --single handed -- constructed 17 interconnected structures including two towers (one just shy of a 100 feet), "the ship", a gazebo with seats, bird baths, and a bathtub/baptismal font built into the wall.
		The guide said that most people think it is just a bathtub, but in fact, Simon Rodia was an ordained evangelical minister, and it is believed that the bathtub is a baptismal font that Simon used in baptisms.
	www.bathtubmuseum.org /watts_exhibit.htm (584 words)

	Watts Towers
		Simon Rodia's creation has been compared to Gaudi's church in Barcelona and the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon, Myanmar.
		Rodia worked on "Nuestro Pueblo" ("Our Town") in the Watts section of Los Angeles, CA for 33 years.
		Rodia's immigrated from Italy to PA. He moved to the West Coast and worked in rock quarries and later as a construction worker.
	www.agilitynut.com /h/wattstowers.html (461 words)

	A Letter of Protest
		You are so off the mark in your history of the Watts Towers -- and the motivation of the builder, Simon Rodia -- that i have grave doubts about your sincerity or capacity for factual research.
		Rodia envisioned no "radio mast" function for the Towers and saw no "gods" -- he erected them, he said, in grateful appreciation to the United States of America, to which he had emigrated from Italy.
		No, i do not think that every nut-case backyard builder was a Simon Rodia, but by lumping Rodia in with truly god-obsessed people like James Hampton, you abrogate any right to my respect, and you reveal yourself to be a class-conscious snob and a fabulizer.
	www.luckymojo.com /rodiaprotest.html (734 words)

	Stories: Nonfiction: Wonder of the Watts Towers, The
		Simon was born in Ribottoli, Italy, in 1879.
		Rodia was trying to recreate something that he remembered fondly from his homeland.
		Rodia began his project, Watts was a semirural area on the edge of the city.
	www.highlightskids.com /Stories/NonFiction/NF0598_wattstower.asp (693 words)

	Watts Towers : Simon Rodia, Facteur Cheval de Los Angeles
		Déformé par les anglophones, son nom était devenu Simon, et parfois Sam Rodia.
		La structure érigée, Rodia la consolidait avec un mortier décoré de tessons de porcelaine, de morceaux de verre et de miroirs, de capsules de bouteilles, d'isolateurs électriques, de coquillages...
		Rodia considéra son uvre achevé après 33 ans de travail, tout comme le Facteur Cheval.
	www.america-dreamz.com /californie/paysages/l-a/watts_tower.php (1741 words)

	Towers of Power
		But he is admired among artists for his superlative grasp of color, among architects for his deft reliance on curved forms, and among engineers for his creative manipulation of concrete, applying homemade batches of it in a "thin shell" style that was rare at the time but is widely used today in building construction.
		Rodia's real genius, though, was in transforming the mundane and familiar, the mass-produced and commonplace, into something unlike anything else, something singular and surprising and strange.
		By the time Rodia left, at age 76, Watts was built up and filled in, and the towers were already a relic, with brightly colored tiles from the defunct Malibu Potteries embedded alongside pre-World War II Japanese porcelain.
	www.csudh.edu /dearhabermas/wattstower01bk.htm (3746 words)

	Jennifer Heusel (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-19)
		It is believed that Italian immigrant Simon Rodia began building his Towers in 1921 when he moved into the residential city of Watts, California.
		Rodia left the Watts area and his Towers forever in 1955, presumably to get away from âthe ridiculeâ by his neighbors, even though he gave his pie-shaped property that held his Towers to one of his Latino neighbors.
		Rodiaâs Towers and Black Power have not been examined as holding any relevance to one another, as they seem to be two very different and unrelated entities.
	www.csaus.pitt.edu /conf/viewabstract.php?id=491&cf=3 (479 words)

	The Watts Towers Arts Center (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-19)
		THE WATTS TOWERS ARTS CENTER was founded by a number of citizens concerned with the restoration and preservation of the historic Towers of Simon Rodia and the cultural well-being of a community ravaged by the civil unrest of 1965.
		The first of which were held under a canvas tarp on the original foundation of Simon Rodia's house.
		During this period activities at the Center were under the direction of Curtis Tan, a well-respected artist and educator in the community who chaired the Simon Rodia Advisory Committee.
	www.trywatts.com /art_center.htm (467 words)

	Watts Towers of Simon Rodia SHP
		The sculptures are constructed from steel pipes and rods, wrapped with wire mesh, coated with mortar, and embedded with pieces of porcelain, tile and glass.
		Using simple hand tools and cast off materials (broken glass, sea shells, generic pottery and ceramic tile) Italian immigrant, Simon Rodia spent 30 years (1921 to 1955) building a tribute to his adopted country and a monument to the spirit of individuals who make their dreams tangible.
		Please be advised, Watts Towers of Simon Rodia SHP is one of the few California State Parks that does not accept the Annual Day Use Pass.
	www.parks.ca.gov /default.asp?page_id=613 (285 words)

	Simon Rodia Biography (1879–1965) (originally Simon Rodilla) Online Encyclopedia Article About Simon Rodia Biography ...
		Simon Rodia Biography (1879–1965) (originally Simon Rodilla) Online Encyclopedia Article About Simon Rodia Biography (1879–1965) (originally Simon Rodilla)
		Critics take the towers seriously as a work of sculpture, and they were designated a national landmark in 1991.
		Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.
	encyclopedia.jrank.org /Cambridge/entries/008/Simon-Rodia.html (130 words)

	Simon Rodia, Watts Towers, Los Angeles (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-19)
		Case studies of folk art environments : Simon Rodia's Watts Towers and Reverend Howard Finster's Paradise Garden.
		Simon Rodia and his towers in Watts: an introduction and a bibliography.
		Simon Rodia's towers in Watts; a photographic exhibition.
	www.publicartinla.com /sculptures/Watts_towers (180 words)

	Simon Rodia
		Built by Simon Rodia, it took 33 years to complete.
		In 1921 Simon bought himself a house and some pie shaped land.
		During the next 33 years Simon filled his yard with three tall towers, a patio, three birdbaths, and a spire 38 feet tall.
	www.kidzworld.com /article/337-artist-simon-rodia (277 words)

	NarrowLarry's World of the Outstanding - The Watts Towers (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-19)
		For the next 33 years and without assistance, Rodia constructed sculptural towers and embellished walls using bent steel rebar, wire mesh, cement, and thousands of pieces of broken tile and pottery.
		In 1955, with the two tallest towers standing nearly 100 feet tall, Rodia left the home, property, and his towers to a neighbor and moved to Northern California.
		A group of concerned citizens, the Committee for Simon Rodia's Towers in Watts, organized to prevent the destruction.
	www.narrowlarry.com /nlwatts.html (330 words)

	Toccata and Rain - Reviews - www.theage.com.au
		Simon has built a folly there: two towers of steel that borrow their form from Gaudi's Sagrada Familia and Simon Rodia's Watts towers.
		Simon's neighbours and the council are not interested in the aesthetics of them; they are just interested in the fact that the planning laws have been contravened.
		Simon goes into another fugue and reappears in Perth with no memory of his life in Melbourne.
	www.theage.com.au /articles/2004/09/24/1095961822872.html (448 words)

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