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Are they a public work of art? An eyesore? A statement about urban development? Or a marketing stunt? Three houses were painted bright pink last week on a residential corner near the Miracle Mile area of Los Angeles.
The top-to-bottom paint job, which includes driveways, windows and bushes, has become an instant Instagram hit as thousands have flocked to the neighbourhood for selfies (and at least a couple of commercial shoots, including one woman modelling in a bathing suit.)
But perhaps not surprisingly, some neighbours are less enthused, complaining that there was no advance warning about the paint job. The pink is only the beginning: the homes will soon be demolished to clear the way for a high-end 45-unit apartment building.
Many see the new four-story complex as just the latest example of gentrification in what was recently a middle-class neighbourhood in the heart of the city, where two-bedroom 1920s Spanish bungalows can now fetch nearly $US1 million ($1.31 million).
The architecture firm designing the new building thought some kind of art project would bring attention to the site, which has sat vacant for months as it awaits approval from the city. So it hired a man who calls himself “The Most Famous Artist” and creates murals he describes as “Instagramable experiences as a service for brand partners worldwide.”
Matty Mo, as he is known to his friends, is a former tech investor whose fortunes were upturned when a video of him drunk and naked on a beach in India landed on Gawker in 2013. He’s since turned his attention to “cracking the code” of the art world: first identifying what will be a social media hit and creating art that will reach the maximum number of people.
For the pink homes, it seems to be working for him, though it has been a bit more of a headache for the architect, Matthew Rosenberg, who has spent much of the last week fielding complaints from nearby residents.
Still, it hardly seems to be affecting the bottom line: Rosenberg said in an interview that there already was a waiting list for the apartments. He said he could not predict what the monthly rent would be and that four had been set aside as affordable housing units for low-income residents.
