Oil Derrick Is Reborn as a ‘Tower of Hope’

People suddenly find themselves pumped up by Beverly Hills’ eyesore oil well.

That’s because the petroleum derrick that for two decades has stuck out like a sore thumb at Beverly Hills High School has blossomed into a 155-foot-tall artwork--compliments of children throughout California.

Youngsters in schools across the state joined hospitalized pediatric patients in painting stylized flowers on vinyl fabric panels that now cover the tower.

A volunteer group that has spent five years planning the decorative covering and carrying panels to hospitals for children to paint has dubbed the derrick the “Tower of Hope.”

Members say the drilling platform may become the launch pad for a nationwide art program for hospitalized youngsters.

About 35,000 schoolchildren helped apply three layers of base paint on the 115 panels. The flower blossoms were painted later by 4,000 pediatric patients from nearly 100 hospitals.

The project was led by West Los Angeles artist and writer Ed Massey.

Massey, 37, got the idea of involving hospitalized youngsters in art when he visited several pediatric units to read aloud his children’s book “Milton.” Massey was surprised when he repeatedly saw bedridden children doodling and drawing flowers on scratch paper.

“The symbol of the flower was an aspect of hope, inspiration and beauty to them,” he said. Like blossoms, “many of them were also fragile, with life-threatening illnesses, with immune systems that were not 100%.”

The idea of covering the derrick with children’s flowers came one day when Massey was exercising at the athletic field at Beverly Hills High, where he graduated in 1981. Gazing up at the 15-story tower, he was struck by what he describes as “the elegant shape” of the otherwise drab, industrial structure.

Why not replace its gray soundproofing panels with colorful depictions of flowers? he thought.

Massey called several hospital pediatric wards and found doctors and nurses enthusiastic about involving their patients in the painting. Then he sought permission from school and city officials in Beverly Hills and from the derrick’s owner.

Executives of Venoco Inc. of Santa Barbara hesitated briefly to turn over their oil well to pint-size artists’ flowers.

“We’re in the macho world of oil drilling,” said Tim Marquez, president of Venoco. “We wondered what a flowered oil rig would be like. That was our only concern.”

Venoco pumps 30,000 gallons of oil a day from 17 wells on the seven-tenths of an acre drilling site at 9865 Olympic Blvd.

The lone derrick services the wells, which extend underground like the spokes of a wheel as far as a mile, pulling oil from beneath neighborhoods and commercial areas such as Rodeo Drive. Property owners, including the Beverly Hills school district, are paid royalties for the oil.

Like others in Beverly Hills and neighboring Century City who are pleased to see the dreary derrick brightened with flowers, Marquez gushes with praise for its new look.

“We feel proud to be a part of it. We’re actually sad to see the project end,” he said.

Beverly Hills High students also like the floral design, said Michael Cohen, a 15-year-old sophomore. “It was an eyesore before.”

Danny Richardson, another 15-year-old, said his English class helped apply a coat of base paint to a panel last year. “It turned out very nice. It brings color to our school,” he said.

The project brought energy to hospitalized youngsters who painted the final layer of flowers, according to experts.

Those in wheelchairs used long-handled rollers. Some bedridden youngsters placed brushes in their mouths as the panels were placed across their beds.

Massey designed sponge-like “shoe brushes” for young patients unable to use their arms or hands. Two years ago, he obtained a patent for the shoe design.

“The panels were so huge that kids could watch themselves finish something that they did themselves and was very beautiful,” said Rachel Hunt, a children’s therapy specialist at Los Angeles County’s Harbor-UCLA Hospital in Torrance.

For the families of young patients who didn’t survive, the finished derrick painting will serve as a monument, Hunt said. “Parents will be able to look at it and say, ‘My child was part of that.’ ”

Youngsters who painted and several hundred adults who volunteered for the project over the last five years have been invited to the tower’s June 11 dedication ceremony at the adjacent high school athletic field. Food and entertainment for the event--like most of the materials for the painting itself--are being donated.

In fact, said project manager Susan Nassberg, most of the estimated $3.2-million cost of the project has been covered by donations. Those gifts range from the free use of three sport utility vehicles for hospital trips to movie studio storage space for completed panels, paintbrushes, miniature wooden models of the derrick, paint sets for hospital patients and free work space at the Westside Pavilion shopping center.

West Los Angeles engineer Kurtis Clandening climbed the derrick and made precise measurements that allowed panels ranging from 10 by 11 feet to 14 by 40 feet to fit together perfectly. Hathaway Dinwiddie Construction Co. volunteered to install the panels; Bragg Crane Co. supplied a 217-foot crane that has been used for the past six weeks to lift them into place.

Nassberg, of Santa Monica, quit her advertising job to volunteer full time. Massey’s brother, educational think tank director Bernie Massey, 41, of West Los Angeles, also continuously worked at coordinating schools involved in the project.

Others likewise became derrick-flower zealots.

Sixth-grade teacher Daniela Kamp of Brentwood used her sick days to travel with blank panels and acrylic paint to a dozen hospitals.

“I was intrigued with the idea of creating a monument to both healthy and ill children,” she explained.