Wrapped up in Ugliness

By Eric Richardson
Published: Tuesday, October 17, 2006, at 04:23PM

Eric Richardson [Flickr]

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — Don Garza and I were walking from the DWP Building to the Regent Theater last Tuesday when we passed by this oddly wrapped structure. The building on the southeast corner of 2nd and Spring had been fully consumed in a Jeep ad, using a technique known as supergraphics. I was baffled at how such a thing could get through City approval, especially since there's a moratorium on new billboards. But more importantly, it was just really ugly.

Walking by yesterday the graphic was still up, though there were signs it might be on the way down. It's very possible that it got put up for the Detour Festival and they just took their time taking it down. How the City could ignore it when it's visible from every south-facing window in the building baffles me.

If it weren't for the Jeep logo in the upper right I don't know that I ever would have figured out what this thing was. On a pedestrian scale it's a muddy mess -- you can't understand it from the sidewalk next to the building.

If something like this were actually able to get through an approval process I'd think we would want to start asking for people to get fired. Its temporary nature probably means that it was done without any process -- whether or not that's legal is another question.

It sure is convenient to just let that stay up for a week or two while you get around to taking it down. I'm sure Jeep doesn't mind.

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Comments

Michael writes:

I actually like the way it looks... Otherwise what would we have? Another boring old plain looking building? I'd rather look at a cool ad, but thats just my opinion... Maybe it looks worse in person?

# on Oct.17.2006 AT 04:48 PM

Eric Richardson writes:

As I said in the post, when you're right next to it all you get is a really low-res mess of ugly brown wall.

But yes, it is an ugly building to begin with.

# on Oct.17.2006 AT 05:14 PM

Whitman Lam writes:

That building looks almost like a miniature version of the new Caltrans Headquarters. The latter being praised and raved about because it was designed by a famous architect.

This obscure corner building is an "ugly" abomination because... beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

# on Oct.17.2006 AT 10:23 PM

Coleman writes:

That building was originally a 4 story building that predated the Higgins building next store. Story has it that the top two floors burned in a fire, so they removed all but the first floor, then covered up the more ornate, classical facade with what you see now. I walk by this building every day, and in my personal opinion, this graphic is better than the drab white that's usually there. But I'd rather see the original facade restored, or a reskinning, like what's proposed for the low rise on 7th and Grand.

# on Oct.18.2006 AT 11:13 AM