Office Workers Miffed At Billboard Wraps
Supergraphics have transformed buildings in Los Angeles into monster billboards
TJ Sullivan
This building, on Santa Monica Boulevard near Westwood Boulevard, features an advertisement more than twice the size of the average billboard.
Lots of people love LA, but nobody, it seems, loves a billboard.
First there was that appellate court ruling that came down a couple weeks ago in favor of a seven-year old City of Los Angeles ban on outdoor advertising.
Then, last week, there was the proposed statewide billboard ban put forth by California State Assemblyman Mike Feuer, of LA.
Now, office workers are rising up in opposition to the building wraps that have covered their windows and turned the exterior of their offices into super-sized billboards. [Photos of several wrapped buildings are at this link]
Often bigger than the average billboard, these supergraphics have been consuming buildings on LA's Westside over the past few months, and office dwellers are joining the fight to bring them down.
A story in today's Los Angeles Times quotes several office workers with complaints about the large, vinyl wraps, which some claim alters both the interior of their workspace, as well as the character of the building's exterior.
One company on Wilshire Boulevard, Recon Research Corp., has sued its landlord. The LA Times quotes Recon's lawyer Alan Harris as writing that the sign has so changed the building's outward appearance that it's "no longer suitable for the purpose for which it was leased."
Neighborhoods are joining the fight too. The president of Homeowners of Encino, Gerald Silver, has asked his neighbors to boycott businesses located in buildings that have been wrapped. Silver has long been a vocal opponent of billboard blight.
-- TJ Sullivan
