Architectural Fantasy Meets the Gas Pump

Dave Monicatti was heading down Centinela when the Mobil station suddenly caught his eye. His head swiveled at the sight of the curved copper awning, the faux finished walls and the slate mural, and one thought popped into his head: “Where did this come from?”

The most anyone expects from a gas station these days is paying less than $2 a gallon at the pump, a good stock of chilled Diet Coke and some Cheetos. But at least one owner thinks that’s not enough.

Jeff Appel wants to give his customers more than what they’re used to, more than gas and great junk food in a ho-hum environment. He wants to give them an experience.

“I’m not an architect, but I have a passion for architecture,” says the 41-year-old Appel, secretary and treasurer of Gardena-based United Oil, which he owns with his father, Ron (they build stations for Unocal, Mobil, Arco and Chevron; currently the count is 97, from Simi Valley to San Diego). “To do something like this, I get a rush.”

About seven years ago, Appel started building stations, starting with one in Corona del Mar. He grew topiary (another of his trademarks) and a mural, “and it brought attention to us.”

With 40 remodeled or rebuilt stations under his belt, he’s continued to add design elements such as tile, plants, variegated walls, fountains and better quality murals, satisfying his creative side and feeding what he calls a “disease that has gotten worse and worse.” Construction costs range from $700,000 to $1.3 million, says Appel, who said a traditional station usually costs about $500,000. (And, he adds, his stations are profitable.)

His latest endeavor is a Mobil station and mini-mart in Mar Vista at the corner ofPalms and Centinela, done in a style that can only be described as contemporary eclectic. Open almost two weeks, it features a copper awning over the mini-mart entrance, mottled earth tone walls and a slate mosaic mural outside, plus onyx counters, a huge airbrushed and hand-painted mural highlighted with neon, and a tiled bathroom with a wrought-iron oval mirror inside.

At his Mobil station in Santa Monica (at Cloverfield Boulevard and Michigan Avenue), there are the same faux finished walls, plus vibrant blue tile, a fountain, and topiary in the shape of woodland creatures. The effect is something like Mediterranean-meets-Southwest. A ceiling mural inside the small convenience store depicts a celestial scene accented with twinkling lights.

Appel isn’t alone in bringing more upscale and varied design to gas stations. Charles Khalil’s Mobil station at Westwood and Santa Monica boulevards features a red metal Pegasus sculpture and fountain.

Frank Sica, retail sales manager for ExxonMobil, says in recent years he’s seen station owners get more creative with elements such as landscaping and flags.

“We have to make sure the owners set certain standards, that the imaging is proper, the canopies, etc.,” he says. “Owners are trying to differentiate themselves from the normal convenience-store buying experience. In terms of Jeff’s creativity, we think it’s attractive, and it appeals to the majority of consumers in the L.A. marketplace, and we support it.”

Reactions from customers at Appel’s Mar Vista station range from awe to befuddlement to disappointment. Some don’t even notice the difference between this and any other station as they race in to pay for their gas and leave.

“There are so many eyesores out there, and this really adds to the neighborhood,” says Terry Thomas, a meat cutter and artist from Mar Vista. “This makes me feel good. It makes me want to come in here. You’d expect to see something like this in a coffee shop--maybe.”

A gray-bearded biker examines the slate mosaic and says, “This is something you’d find in a million-dollar home in Beverly Hills.” His verdict? “I’d like to see lower gas prices.”

“It’s a little more pleasant to walk into,” says Ryan O’Malley, a camera assistant from Mar Vista. “But it doesn’t make a huge difference in my day.”

“It’s strange,” offers Derik Van Derbeken, a sales rep for the Ahmanson Theatre who grew up a couple of blocks from this corner. “The place sort of had memories for me,” he says, referring to the Shell service station that used to occupy the corner. “It’s a strange thing to say, but whenever we’d go on a family trip, we’d stop here first for gas--it was a ritual. One year, the owner let my brother and me sell kittens. This neighborhood hasn’t really changed that much. It’s going to take some getting used to. I probably never will.”

It is odd to think that something as mundane as a gas station holds fond memories, even in our car-obsessed culture. But although Angelenos are used to their urban landscape changing daily, the corner groceries, the family-run hardware stores and the funky bookstores have a place in someone’s history.

“Gas stations are an everyday place that are community fixtures,” says John Kaliski, principal architect with the Santa Monica-based firm AIJK and a professor at the Southern California Institute of Architecture. “They play a part toward creating an individual’s and a community’s sense of itself, and architecture can contribute to that in both positive and negative ways.”

The community garage was a place where customers trusted the local mechanic who worked on their cars, Kaliski adds. Stations from the 1930s and ‘40s were often wonderful examples of sleek, stylized modern design, made famous in the iconographic paintings of Ed Ruscha.

In the ‘60s, some stations took on a space-age look; the Beverly Hills Union 76 station, designed in 1965 by William L. Pereira and Charles Luckman is a prime example--with its angular, upswept roofs.

But dull, cookie-cutter architecture eventually took over, and gas stations became just another blah, functional building on a street. Over the years, traditional service stations have slowly begun to disappear, replaced by gas stations and mini-marts. Other hybrids include fast-food restaurant/gas stations, a familiar sight on the country’s interstates.

Kaliski cautions that cosmetic changes alone might not be enough to foster neighborly feelings. “The equation is more complex than that. It has more to do with the manager’s interaction with the community. It’s wrong to think aesthetics alone are a substitute for human interaction. Plus, people are going to have different perceptions on whether it works based on how they use it. I never buy groceries in a gas station, but obviously people do.”

Appel is well aware of the fact that not everyone is going to be thrilled with his designs. Since he’s been building stations, he’s faced objections at local hearings.

“There’s always a small group of people who have lived in the community for years who don’t want any change,” says Appel. “I think change is great. Communities tend to get older, uglier, they paint the facades the same color. I’m certainly sensitive to the neighbors; I don’t want them to be unhappy with it. If I change the neighborhood and people like it, good. I build the best gas stations I can. But I’m not thinking about changing the landscape when I’m building the stations; I just don’t want them to look the same all the time.”

To get that unique look, Appel often hires local artists and craftspeople. Karol Tokarski of Loleks Tile in Anaheim installed the Mar Vista station’s sea-themed mural, incorporating a flag of Poland (his homeland) on a sailing ship. Henry Goods painted the celestial ceiling at the Santa Monica station, and in Mar Vista he incorporated product characters such as an M&M; and Mr. Peanut into his indoor mural, enhanced with neon.

Appel spotted Goods’ paintings when he was selling them on the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, and the two have worked on several stations together. While Appel has definite ideas about what he wants, he also affords the artists much creativity.

How does Goods feel about having a convenience store wall as a canvas?

“It doesn’t bother me. I really want my work up on as many tall walls as I can get to. Jeff happened to give me an outlet. People ask me who my clients are and I tell them Mobil, Arco and Chevron. I say, ‘Dude, I am telling you, you have to go to the station and find out where I’m coming from, and where he’s coming from.’ I love the money [he charges between $2,000 and $10,000 per mural], but you also know it’s going to be there.”

Kathy Arnold of Fee Fi Faux Finishes in San Pedro looks at the larger picture when considering her work on Appel’s stations: “I like the artist creating the environment. We need more of that,” she says. “It’s kind of a disaster when artists aren’t involved in how buildings look because that is our environment. Human beings need beautiful places with nice colors and good design, no matter where they are.”