Artsy Planters Stir Neighbors’ Emotions

Folks in one of the Westside’s oldest neighborhoods couldn’t figure out what was happening along their community’s main drag.

Tons of mysterious concrete blobs popped up overnight on sidewalks lining an eight-block stretch of South Robertson Boulevard north of the Santa Monica Freeway.

Puzzled residents weighed in with tons of complaints.

Had the street been hit with an outbreak of illegal dumping? Were these misshapen hunks supposed to be curbside trash receptacles? Did some movie studio accidentally leave behind props from a film shoot?

“There was tremendous discontent,” said Malcolm Brown, an insurance agency owner who is president of the South Robertson Boulevard Merchants Assn. “People called up and demanded, ‘Who the hell gave you permission to do this?’ There was a huge uproar.”

Susan Bursk, president of South Robertson Neighborhoods Council, a coalition of local homeowners that calls itself SoRo, added: “It caused quite a controversy.”

Tempers started to cool when the two leaders of a boulevard revitalization campaign explained that the sidewalk fixtures were planters that would soon be overflowing with flowers and succulents.

The 19 one-of-a-kind containers were handcrafted in concrete and terrazzo by art students hoping to help spruce up the neighborhood’s fading business district.

Organizers of the boulevard face-lift say that they were trying to wake up the sleepy commercial strip when they invited students from the Otis College of Art and Design in Westchester to come up with ideas for new sidewalk planters.

“They told us they would do something creative. But our jaws dropped when we saw what they’d done,” said Brown. “It was bizarre and totally outrageous. But this area needed something to shake it back to life.”

The initial outcry from some businessmen and residents of Beverlywood, Castle Heights and other adjoining neighborhoods was not the kind of reaction that leaders were hoping for.

Complaints poured in to municipal offices. City Department of Public Works officials who had signed off on the idea nervously called the revitalization committee to ask how things were going.

“I didn’t really panic,” said Bursk. “We agreed they looked like sore thumbs. But we said, ‘Just wait--we aren’t done yet.’ ”

The planters started to grow on residents when the flowers and succulents were placed in them. Among them are agave plants recycled from actor Brad Pitt’s backyard by a local landscape architect.

“Now I think they’re terrific. It’s a good start for this street,” said resident Robert Wells.

The planters were a centerpiece of a street fair Sunday on Robertson between Cattaraugus Avenue and Beverlywood Street. “A Sense of SoRo” featured entertainment, food and the dedication of 77 new curbside trees planted in the area.

Otis art students--whose work was financed by a $5,000 city grant and a $6,100 donation by the International Masonry Institute--were invited. .

Student Sarah Peltzie said she learned a great deal after spending several hundred hours designing and constructing her half-ton, steel-reinforced planter--and then experiencing people’s reaction to it.

“I found out that I don’t have the thick skin yet that you need when you do public art,” she said.