Yacht’s Pretty Lights

The Triforium, a now defunct, six-story art piece in Los Angeles, may be in line to receive renovations.

Damian Dovarganes/AP – L.A. Triforium Project
Jona Bechtolt and Claire Evans of musical duo Yacht, internet content creator Tom Carroll and urban planner Tanner Blackman stand next to the Triforium landmark in Los Angeles. The group is trying to get support to modernize the musical art piece.

The Triforium was one of many public art displays Joseph Young built for the city 40 years ago and it was a cool idea: The edifice used to light up in sync to music, but fell out of favor because of its $1 million price tag and dated technology.

It’s covered with 1,494 colorful lights that blinked in time with music blasting from four speakers but was “mocked from the day it made its feedback-ridden, embarrassingly screechy 1975 debut,” as noted by the Associated Press.

Critics ridiculed it as “The Trifoolery, The Schockenspiel and The Million-Dollar Jukebox.”

Young’s vision was to have it eventually contain lasers that would shoot lights to the surrounding buildings and music would be triggered by the footsteps of ongoing passersby.

Instead, the structure has sat silent for years while two-thirds of its lights burned out. Now some believe the structure was too far ahead of its time. Thanks to support from Yacht, urban planner Tanner Blackman, online content creator Tom Carroll and a $100,000 grant from the Goldhirsh Foundation, supporters hope to refit the landmark with a modern computer system and remote access to make the experience more interactive for the public.

“What we want to do is replace the computer system entirely with something that is network simple, easy to update, open-sourced and remotely accessible so that we can turn the instrument into something genuinely interactive for residents of the 21st century,” Yacht’s Claire Evans said. Approval for these changes is required from various governmental agencies.