Remembering L.A.'s Steel Cloud: Public art 'stressful just to look at'

Remember the "Steel Cloud"?

Back in the 1980s, it was Mayor Tom Bradley's answer to the Statue of Liberty -- L.A.'s own icon. But as Then and Now columnist Steve Harvey recalls, many didn't like New York architect Hani Rashid's vision for public art, which was to rise above the Hollywood Freeway in downtown.

The Times described it as an "avant-garde series of geometrical metal shapes housing theaters, museum, cafes, walkways, a genealogy library and other cultural amenities … all growing out of the median strip of the Hollywood Freeway."

The working model looked "as if it were built with an erector set."

Some likened the design to a freeway crash scene — or Los Angeles after the Big One.

Gloria Molina, then a councilwoman, commented, "It's stressful just to look at the drawings."

Times columnist Jack Smith wondered if it was a joke being played on L.A. "The architect is a New Yorker," he pointed out. "Ten of the 15 jurors who chose him are foreigners. How can we be sure it isn't a Trojan horse?"

Read Steve Harvey's full column here.

Image: Artist handout / Los Angeles Times file photo

Comments

[Nick Patsaouras,Chairman West Coast Gateway Committee]

I always thought that Steve Harvey would make a great comedian, if he ever left the newspaper business. He threw "balance in the story" under the bus, by selectively using quotes to ridicule the Steel Cloud design.He should have also used one of the many complimentary quotes of art critic Christopher Knight`s "..no design I know of past or present, more brilliantly or provocatively evokes the history and the image of L.A. than...the amazing Steel Cloud", or historian and urbanist Kevin Starr`s "..Like all visionary proposals, the Steel Cloud stimulates us to think about the future, and to dream of the cities that might be." Harvey either does not get it or he wants to provide comic relief to his readers from the civic gloom and despair L.A. is in. It reminds me of his former colleague, who also ridiculed the design, LA Times architecture critic Sam Kaplan`s comment in critiqueing F. Gehry`s house design. " I will only take my dog there to piss on the lawn." And as they say. The rest is history.

[MRoberts]

Yes, Mr. Pasaouras, except in this case history vindicates the decision not to go ahead with this costly embarassment.

You have, however, hit on the one true loss here: Angelenos could've made endless, absolutely endless jokes about the "Steel Cloud." The aesthetic debacle would've employed local comedians for years. The loss to our collective sense of humor is incalculable.

A brilliantly and provocative evocation of LA's history? This messy jumble of nonsense may be a sociologically accurate evocation of LA, I suppose, but is nonetheless utterly dreadful when incarnated as an actual building. I'm sure you could come up with a brilliant architectural evocation of our municipal tax codes too, but that doesn't mean you'd want to then build the damn thing.

[dean]

A pile of intellectualized chaos; unlovely, joyless, brutal and utterly inhumane.

Oh, but "totally rad" to be sure.

If it had been erected, today it would most likely be a dirty, rusting hulk...a freak show curiosity...and the public would be crying to have it dismantled and used for scrap.

[Ben]

Nick, I agree with the your observation, but it does look pretty damn ugly nonetheless.