Truth matters. Community matters. Your support makes both possible. LAist is one of the few places where news remains independent and free from political and corporate influence. Stand up for truth and for LAist. Make your year-end tax-deductible gift now.
The Curious History Of LA's Gas Station Topiary Art
Topiary art outside the Mobil station at Melrose and Highland (Image capture: Apr 2019/Copyright 2019 Google)
Outside the Mobil gas station at the corner of Melrose Avenue and Highland Avenue in Hollywood, lush green animals greet customers near the sidewalk.
They're topiaries -- art fashioned from plants -- and they appear at a handful of local gas stations owned by United Pacific, formerly known as United Oil.
The fauna-based flora-critters are eye-catching, so much so that an anonymous reader wrote in to ask LAist, "Who makes the gas station topiary art I see around the city?"
We have harvested you an answer. And it begins, as so much does, with a burst of inspiration in the 1990s.
At that time, Jeff Appel, the son of United Oil's then-president, was refurbishing one of the company's gas stations in Corona Del Mar. In the course of his comings and goings, he would frequently drive past what he called "a topiary place."
"I said to myself, 'Hey, wouldn't it be great if I could have them do a Pegasus horse?'" he told the Los Angeles Times in 2000.
He convinced his father to let him go through with it (the Pegasus is Mobil's mascot), and a topiary legacy was born.
Sponsored message
Appel began adding the art where he could, and his vegetation-based menagerie soon expanded to include rabbits, squirrels, snakes, dinosaurs, tigers and monkeys, according to the Times.
But his vision wasn't limited to plant animals.
Appel also started installing expansive murals at his refurbished stations. He took inspiration from Googie architecture. He installed fanciful solar panels. And he even commissioned some trompe l'oiel paintings, according to the New York Times.
''I discovered I had a knack I never realized I had,'' he told the paper.
United Oil was purchased by Fortress Investment Group in 2014, and renamed Union Pacific. A representative from the company told LAist that the topiary art still decorating the outskirts of many of their gas stations is left over from ten to 20 years ago, and is now just maintained.
The spirit with which they were installed is being maintained, too, on social media. The art makes occasional appearances on Twitter and Instagram.
We Love To Answer Your Questions
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our connected community. We are free to tell the full truth, to hold power to account without fear or favor, and to follow facts wherever they lead. Our only loyalty is to our audiences and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen our community.
Right now, LAist has lost $1.7M in annual funding due to Congress clawing back money already approved. The support we receive before year-end will determine how fully our newsroom can continue informing, serving, and strengthening Southern California.
If this story helped you today, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
Your tax-deductible donation keeps LAist independent and accessible to everyone.
Right now, LAist has lost $1.7M in annual funding due to Congress clawing back money already approved. The support we receive before year-end will determine how fully our newsroom can continue informing, serving, and strengthening Southern California.
If this story helped you today, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
Your tax-deductible donation keeps LAist independent and accessible to everyone.
Senior Vice President News, Editor in Chief
