How a graffiti-covered, downtown skyscraper became a viral Halloween costume

Over the last year, the graffiti-pocked husk of the unfinished Oceanwide Plaza skyscrapers have haunted Los Angeles’ skyline, a beacon of disrepair and, for some, artistic expression.

On Halloween, the plaza appeared to get up and simply walk away thanks to Xavier Mozejewski, a Hollywood set designer, who designed a wearable costume that looked just like one of the plaza’s three buildings.

“Three days before Halloween I was working a job in Chinatown, driving on the 110 and saw the building and thought, ‘That’s it,’” said Mozejewski about coming up with his costume. “It was all over the internet for months. I think it’s just recognizable to everybody in L.A. In a weird way it’s super niche, but also recognizable. Everyone has had some sort of connection to it in a way.”

Mozejewski’s costume represented the latest chapter in the colorful history of the abandoned plaza that many see as symbol of the city’s neglect and stubborn crime problem. In October, a Bankruptcy Court judge granted an extension for the sale of the towers, which are between 40 and 53 stories. There is now no date set for a sale.

The art department worker used recycled supplies he salvaged from work and tried to create a perfect six-foot replica of one of the towers from the bankrupt, more than $1-billion development. The abandoned buildings became infamous this year as artists broke in and tagged the skyscrapers from top to bottom, with some daredevils even BASE jumping off the towers.

“Originally I was trying to make it as scaled and perfectly exact as possible in terms of dimensions of it all. For the graffiti I was looking at photos trying to get it all done before the sun went down on Halloween. It was a race against the clock to get it done to take photos while the sun was still out,” Mozejewski said.

While the outfit went viral on TikTok and Instagram, Mozejewski said he got called out a bit by some graffiti artists who called his attempts at mimicry “toy,” meaning kind of novice.

“I appreciate the criticism. People that do creative stuff can get protective of it. It wasn’t going in a museum or anything,” he said.

Mozejewski donned his costume and wore it out to Santa Monica, where excited trick-or-treaters gasped at his artistry. He gave them pens and allowed them to add their own mini-graffiti to the outfit.

People interacting with the outfit and, he said, signing it is what made the costume particularly special.

“That was what elevated this whole experience even more. It kind of became a performative, theatrical new dimension I didn’t even think about. That was amazing to me,” he said.