The City of Los Angeles, like many other cities across the country, began installing air raid sirens shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, when the United States formally entered World War II. During the war, the network expanded to 225 sirens, tested on the last Friday of each month. The sirens were only activated once in response to enemy plane sightings, an erroneous report that tragically caused widespread panic, several accidents, and three fatalities. Following the war, the system was repurposed for the newly developing Cold War as a nuclear warning network, accompanied by bomb shelters and “duck-and-cover” drills. Over time, faulty wiring and natural wear led to frequent false alarms. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union and easing global tensions, the system was deactivated in 1985. Because dismantling was considered too costly, most sirens were simply abandoned in place. While many have since been removed with city development, roughly 130 remain standing across Los Angeles today.

This project, Copper Siren, centers on Siren #165, located near Bellevue Avenue and Edgeware Road in Echo Park. The project proposes to coat the siren and its supporting structure in copper leaf, sealed with a protective acrylic topcoat to prevent oxidation. This treatment visually lifts the siren out of its everyday environment to allow the public to pause, recognize, and reflect on its presence within a contemporary context. Long abandoned, the siren stands as an overlooked relic built on collective notions of security, anxiety, preparedness, surveillance, and technology. Over its eighty-year history, our relationships to these ideas have evolved, splintered, and warped, and will continue to change over the decades to come. The project has required dedicated research about history and past precedents, as well as community, neighborhood council, and district councilmember support, and collaboration with the Bureau of Engineering and the Department of Cultural Affairs.