The illegal art installation among the Los Angeles skyline is the city’s latest cleaning target. Since 2014, the abandoned Oceanwide Plaza skyscrapers have been the illicit canvas for taggers and vandals. Known colloquially as the “graffiti towers,” new ownership prompted city officials to order a complete cleanup of the buildings.
Graffiti removal is an increasingly diversified service offering in the commercial cleaning industry, with 73 percent of building service contractors (BSCs) offering it as a specialty service. The global market for this type of cleanup shows sustainable growth, with economic analysts predicting it will advance to $127.9 million by 2033. This growth is due, in part, to the rising need for exterior surface maintenance.
For commercial properties, graffiti removal is less about aesthetics and more about creating a safe and healthy environment for the public. According to the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), officers have spent an estimated 3,000 hours on duty at the graffiti towers to deter further vandalism acts. Many of the bright and colorful tags appearing on the facility’s facade have remained untouched for years, encouraging future acts…