the Merritt building<\/a> on Broadway in downtown L.A.<\/p>\nWith Oceanwide Plaza, as with any other structures, graffiti removal methods depend on the building materials.<\/p>\n
If the frames of the towers were made with poured concrete, Coad said you could apply a chemical stripping agent on the surface and leave it soaking overnight.<\/p>\n
“And then you kind of peel them off,” he said. “\u200aAnd that’s hopeful.”<\/p>\n
Another option is to blast the paint off with tiny little beads of glass.<\/p>\n
\u200a”[They] are pressurized and hit the building and kind of explode and would pull the paint off without damaging the concrete or the substrate,” Coad said.<\/p>\n
That’s the method Kaptive used to remove decades-old graffiti from the marble facade of the Merritt building \u2014 a more damage-prone material than concrete.<\/p>\n
“We deal with concrete all the time \u2014 but old concrete \u2014 newer concrete is more solid and should be easy to remove,” he said.<\/p>\n
![\"Three](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1772415322_589_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
The so-called Graffiti Towers in 2024.<\/p>\n
(<\/p>\n
Mario Tama<\/p>\n
\/<\/p>\n
Getty Images<\/p>\n
)<\/p>\n
The tough part<\/p>\n
While the exterior \u2014 if it is indeed poured concrete \u2014 is a relatively straightforward job, the windows are not.<\/p>\n
“The vast majority of the graffiti is on the windows,” he said. “I have no idea what films or elements or whatever [else] may be on that glass. The chemical agent may work poorly with whatever is applied to that glass.”<\/p>\n
So the first thing Coad would do is to call up the manufacturer for recommendations, and then test things out.<\/p>\n
“Option 1 is to remove it. Option 2 is to replace everything,” Coad said. “And Option 1 will be significantly cheaper, but it will not be cheap.”<\/p>\n
Above all, safety first<\/p>\n
![\"Man](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1772415323_559_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
The so-called Graffiti Towers behind Crypto.com Arena in 2024.<\/p>\n
(<\/p>\n
Mario Tama<\/p>\n
\/<\/p>\n
Getty Images<\/p>\n
)<\/p>\n
Another major consideration is safety. After all, each of the towers is more than 500 feet tall, with graffiti on multiple floors.<\/p>\n
“Number one is looking at it from how would we access all of the panes of glass from the exterior of the buildings,” he said, adding that he would work with Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) from the get-go to put in place the safest possible work environment for his crew.<\/p>\n
“Everybody will be harnessed in. There’ll be the main line, there’ll be a safety line, and I think we would want to erect some sort of netting or railing,” he said. \u200a”I want to make sure if they slip that nothing’s going to happen to them other than maybe a bruise.”<\/p>\n
Time line and price tag<\/p>\n
Coad said it’s going to require spending time out at the towers, followed by mockups and sample strip tests to arrive at an accurate quote and timeframe for the project. Ballpark-wise, “\u200ahundreds upon hundreds of hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not in the million range.”<\/p>\n
One thing he is certain about.<\/p>\n
“\u200aIt’s not gonna be cheap,” he said. “It will take a very long time.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"How the new buyers of ‘graffiti towers’ in downtown LA could go about stripping all that paint News…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":498470,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[228,226,227,229,88],"class_list":["post-498469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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<\/p>\n