The Watts Towers aren’t officially open for their centennial, having been closed for restoration since 2017. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) By Christopher Reynolds. Staff Writer Follow.

The towers, topping out at just under 100 feet high, were created single-handedly by Simon Rodia, an uneducated Italian immigrant stonemason who built them in his spare time from 1921 to 1954.

The Watts Towers rise above homes in the South Central Los Angeles community of Watts. The hand-sculpted structures were built by Simon Rodia between 1921-1954. Before You Go.

It took Italian immigrant Simon “Sam” Rodia more than 25 years to build the Watts Towers, starting work on the massive, one-of-a-kind structure in 1921. The city later protested.

(CBS News) In Los Angeles, the Watts section is known for showing a community at its worst and its best. It's also where two giant spires known as the Watts Towers have withstood the test of time.

It took Italian immigrant Simon “Sam” Rodia more than 25 years to build the Watts Towers, starting work on the massive, one-of-a-kind structure in 1921. The city later protested. Rodia had no ...

The Watts Towers gained a bit of national recognition this week, but not for a happy reason: The outdoor sculpture composed of salvaged steel, seashells, tile, glass, wire mesh, and concrete by ...

The Watts Towers are one of three sites in California to recently be listed as "at risk" by The Cultural Landscape Foundation. "It's at risk because of the environment that it's in," says Preusser.

A simple fact -- the Watts Towers were the creation of Italian architect Simon Rodia, built over the course of three decades and finished 10 years before the Watts riots -- belongs somewhere in ...

The Watts Towers rise in Los Angeles like a strange evocation of Gaudi's monumental art nouveau church, the Sagrada Familia, in Barcelona. And to some ...