"They had to learn how to read drawings upside down, because they weren't allowed to sit next to the white clients. So I was incorporating things like the half doorway to symbolize their struggle. The tower is a nod to five Black architects, trailblazers whose creations sometimes went unnoticed or overlooked."
"Officially designated as the Legacy Tower, Smith himself fixates on that word - 'legacy.' The term, he says, represents a thematic constant across his work. A regular collaborator on a number of Walt Disney Co. projects and a former architect with Walt Disney Imagineering, Smith is something of a connector."
Nikkolas Smith, an artist and activist known as an "artivist," created the Legacy Tower at Downtown Disney near the monorail station. The striking white structure combines Midcentury design aesthetics with deeper meaning. At its base is a half-open doorway symbolizing the struggles of five pioneering Black architects whose contributions were often unrecognized. These architects faced severe discrimination, including being forced to read drawings upside down to avoid sitting near white clients, and endured unequal pay. Smith, a former Walt Disney Imagineering architect, regularly incorporates themes of legacy and historical recognition into his work, connecting past injustices to present social issues through his art.
Read at Los Angeles Times
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