I know some find the situation amusing, Cholly, having two gigantic towers designed to house people, become a statement of some kind, but I think most of my fellow Angelenos see it as a slap in the face. We're pissed that a business from unfriendly country is allowed to build here in the first place, one, and two, are allowed to abandon a mostly completed edifice with impunity when housing is needed so desperately - even by the ones rich enough for a nice downtown condo but who can't afford a villa in the south of France or up in Bel-Air.

Seems a private firm - or even a government agency that wants to go into the real estate market - should be able to take over and finish this cruel joke. What shouldn't happen is for the towers to remain merely as a receptacle for questionable artwork. Statement made though.

It may also be worth mentioning that Westbank has TWO other stalled and topped out high rise projects in Seattle; Museum House on First Hill, and First Light in Belltown.

The tagging of the LA towers is nothing more than a dick measuring contest - it’s mostly crap by edgy idiots. If the “artists” had done something meaningful (say something like along east marginal or the Sodo track), then perhaps I could understand the why behind this article (but it’s nothing but shitty self promotion of hacks). For Christ’s sake at least attempt something original.

@5,

You don't think people want to live in Los Angeles!?!

The biggest cultural event in downtown Los Angeles history were the warehouse shows with black flag and the revolting cocks.

graffiti and basketball, not so much.

@5 is so close to seeing it…if the land under those buildings was taxed on its productive value, rather speculative value, the developer would have already been forced to sell it to someone who could complete the project. But rentier capitalism allows or encourages speculators to hold land out of production (there is abandoned/disused land all over Seattle, much of it held as part of someone's portfolio) so we have this and the old SPD parcel and so many other developments, waiting for the day when everyone else's labor makes it worth completing.