Scale Model of the Watts Towers

In 1996, apparently with too much time on my hands, I started to piece together a 1/4"=1' scale model of the Watts Towers of Sabato (Simon) Rodia. Constructed of a combination of basswood, museum board, plaster, and gesso, the model took about 9 months to complete. The accuracy of the layout and massing would not be possible without the help of preservation activist and great friend Seymour Rosen and his archive photographs, as well as site measurements and technical data from conservation engineer N.J. "Bud" Goldstone.

In 2017 the model was added to the permanent collection of the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, Wisconsin.


...and as seen on The Simpsons !
It's about 5 3/4 minutes into the 2009 episode "Lisa the Drama Queen".
(Hmmm...I think someone from the show must have seen my model.)



larger, higher resolution version of these photos on Flickr























a fan letter from Don DeLillo




On display in Spring 2013 at the exhibit
"Farfetched: Mad Science, Fringe Architecture & Visionary Engineering"
at the Gregg Museum of Art & Design, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC

(Exhibition curated by Roger Manley and Tom Patterson)



scale model and photos copyright Lawrence Harris
(with the exception of the Simpsons image from Montgomery Burns Global Media, LLP.)


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