Add criminal tightrope walking to the list of problems besetting Oceanwide Plaza, the unfinished, bankrupt, vandalized and painted towers that blight the downtown Los Angeles skyline.
A 28-year-old performance artist from Ohio filmed himself on May 12 wobbling along a 1-inch-wide slackline rope strung between two of the abandoned estate's skyscrapers, 40 stories above Figueroa Street.
“I wanted to create the biggest piece of art Los Angeles has ever seen,” Benjamin Schneider, who goes by Reckless Ben on social media, told KNBC of the stunt performed about 500 feet above the ground. He broke through a chain-link fence the city erected to discourage trespassing to reach the top of the building and boasted to the station that he left his slackline in place at the monstrous housing development as “my addition to the building.”
It was the latest indignity for Oceanwide, once conceived as a glamorous residential, hotel and retail complex in the hot South Park neighborhood but now a metaphor, in the eyes of some, for Los Angeles's civic failures.
Earlier this year, taggers painted graffiti on at least 27 floors of a partially completed skyscraper in downtown Los Angeles, directly across from the Crypto.com Arena at LA Live.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
A Chinese company bought the block in front of what was then the Staples Center in 2014, but ran out of money in 2019. With construction halted, the site became a seemingly irresistible canvas for graffiti artists, with their work visible every day. for thousands of motorists. on the 110 and 10 freeways along with the crowd of convention-goers and sports fans at what is now Crypto.com Arena.
While graffiti artists claimed the exterior, stuntmen began using its three towers, including BASE jumpers paragliding from the roof. Police also responded to reports of gunshots at the facility, and the lower levels of the building were repeatedly vandalized.
In an attempt to control the situation, the city allocated $3.8 million for graffiti and billboard removal in February, and the Los Angeles Police Department began 24-hour patrols. Thirty people have been arrested at the property since February, Los Angeles police told The Times on Saturday. As last week's tightrope walk demonstrated, the place is still passable.
Mark Tarczynski, a broker who is with the team trying to sell the property as part of the bankruptcy proceedings, said the owners, Oceanwide Holdings, are paying for some private security to supplement police. But, he said, the challenge is the size of the downtown complex: “It's a million and a half square feet.”
Schneider told KTLA he created a distraction by having his teammates hold large signs that said “Jesus Saves.”
“The signs blocked the police's view and we all jumped over the fence,” he said. He said he was wearing a harness as he made the less than three-minute trip between the towers and that he could see police and firefighters watching him from below.
“They were just watching from below,” he told KNBC.
Schneider did not respond to messages seeking comment.
Los Angeles police on the grounds of the unfinished Oceanwide Plaza complex, which in recent months has been a target of vandals and thrill seekers.
(On stage/KTLA)
Los Angeles police “have been informed of this incident and have launched an investigation,” according to written responses to questions provided by a police spokesperson. Detectives have not yet spoken to Schneider, the department said, adding: “It is a crime to trespass on the Oceanwide site, the signs are clearly posted. “It is unsafe and poses a risk to trespassers, the general public, and public safety officials, including our Fire Department should an emergency occur.”
The mess at the site is not expected to affect its sale, Tarczynski said. An appraisal last month estimated its value at $434 million, and a new owner will be identified by the fall who can afford the estimated $865 million cost to complete the project.
“Cleaning graffiti off the building is an easy task,” he said. “The big job will be to complete it.”
