Summer Of Color Transforms L.A.'s Coastline

[Photos by Ryan Purkey via Laist] This summer, L.A.'s beaches will see some extra bright hues courtesy of Portraits of Hope's "Summer of Color" project.  The undertaking will visually transform L.A.'s coastline by painting 158 lifeguard towers with bright colors and panels that feature dynamic, vibrant designs.

The organization, aimed at enriching the lives of children and adults with hands-on civic engagement, is the same one responsible for the those bright floral designs that were featured on NYC cabs you may have seen back in 2007. We love how they translated the concept to L.A. since those lifeguard towers, made famous by "Baywatch", are part of the city's iconography, much like yellow cabs to NYC's.

Thousands of volunteers have participated in the "Summer of Color" project over the last several weekends, with the first three towers ready to be unveiled on Wednesday.  One will display a shapes-themed design, another a flower design, and the other an aquatic design.  The towers for the project will span more than 30 miles of L.A.'s coastline, from the Zuma, Malibu, Santa Monica, Venice, Marina Del Rey, Playa Del Rey, Manhattan, and Hermosa Beaches and will show the Summer of Color through September.

We're really excited to see our new lifeguard towers once they're finished! Based on the photos from the work in progress, it looks like they're going to make for a pretty rad visual along the coast just in time for summer.

This is obviously a model of what the finished towers will look like.  Unfortunately they will not feature life-size Ken dolls, sorry to disappoint.

[Photos by Ryan Purkey via Laist]