Dem Bones

With over 4,000 residences spread out over 160 acres, Park La Brea Apartments in Los Angeles is one of the largest apartment complexes in the country.

Is it a playground? A sculpture? If you?EUR??,,??re a little kid, you don?EUR??,,??t care; it?EUR??,,??s just cool. A landscape architect and a Russian sculptor partnered to create a truly interactive art piece in the heart of Los Angeles.

With over 4,000 residences spread out over 160 acres, Park La Brea Apartments is one of the largest apartment complexes in the country. With five miles of fitness trails winding through three huge outdoor parks, Park La Brea is, in some ways, a landscape architect?EUR??,,??s dream job, since it represents an opportunity to be part of a completely landscaped enclosed community that is uncommonly large.

Three years ago, Park La Brea?EUR??,,??s owners approached Projects Pacific of Berkeley, Calif., to design their third and final outdoor park. Park LaBrea already had a fitness center, a junior Olympic sized pool, and an impressive list of other amenities. The next priority was a volleyball court and a space for a small amphitheatre.

Enter Projects Pacific of Berkeley and Donald Raichle, landscape architect. The owners wanted something with trees and a central conceptual art piece. Projects Pacific?EUR??,,??s idea was a series of sweeping curved lines of palm trees that, from overhead, would converge on the conceptual art piece. Don wanted the art piece to be something that children could play on. The owners liked the trees and loved Don?EUR??,,??s idea, as there were many families at Park La Brea and no central outdoor playground.

Sweeping curved lines of palms converge on the conceptual art piece, a saber tooth cat skeleton that is also play pieces for the children of the Park La Brea Apartments.

Don consulted with Mark Schatz, Projects Pacific?EUR??,,??s director, and Mark agreed to bring in Oleg Lobykin, a master sculptor hailing from St. Petersburg, Russia. Don had worked with Oleg before. Oleg?EUR??,,??s job was to design a playground featuring a series of functional and artistically compelling sculptures.

A professional sculptor his whole adult life, Oleg had his start restoring historical landmarks in St. Petersburg (then called Leningrad) during the communist era. In 1989, he came to America, where he was employed for six years working on St. John the Divine in New York City, the largest cathedral in the U.S. His work included everything from restoring damaged carvings to sculpting original gargoyles and grotesques for the cathedral.

After five years back in Russia, Oleg moved to California when his wife got into Stanford?EUR??,,??s business school. ?EUR??,,??I had to start over completely,?EUR??,,?? he said. His r??(C)sum??(C) was impressive; in addition to St. John?EUR??,,??s in New York and countless projects in Russia, his clients had included the Metropolitan Museum of New York (the Cloisters), the New York Jewish Museum, Yale University and the Denver Public Library. Oleg found some lucrative projects in his new home, including restoration work for Stanford University and Presidio Trust in San Francisco. He had worked with Don before on ornamental onyx sculptures for a private residence in San Francisco, and was eager to take on design of a series of large outdoor pieces.

Oleg drove down to LA to see what ideas came to him. After his initial visit to the site, Oleg and Projects Pacific were thinking of five sculptures of animals, perhaps painted and finished to resemble petrified wood. Although he was convinced that he could create compelling animals, Oleg did not feel that the idea was particularly inspired.

The final design consists of the skull of a saber tooth tiger, two sections of spine with ribs, the hipbone, and the tail arranged in anatomical order.

Then he visited the nearby Page Museum and saw the world famous La Brea tarpits. ?EUR??,,??I saw the saber tooth cat skeleton and I fell in love,?EUR??,,?? Oleg said. ?EUR??,,??I wanted to create sculptures which imitated an actual fossil laid out in pieces.?EUR??,,?? His final design consisted of the skull, two sections of spine with ribs, the hipbone, and the tail arranged in anatomical order so it would look like unearthed fossils. ?EUR??,,??I had seen so many animal sculptures, smooth like candy from your mouth, boring,?EUR??,,?? Oleg explained. With his final design, children can wander between the fossil?EUR??,,??s fangs, climb into the eye sockets and between the ribs.

Projects Pacific loved the idea, although there was concern about materials. The spinal sections, in particular, were huge, with approximately a 20 to 1 ratio. Both solid concrete and cast stone would cost a great deal for materials, molds, transportation and installation. Projects Pacific had always assumed that these were the most likely options, since Oleg?EUR??,,??s career had consisted entirely of working with stone.

Oleg proposed the sculptures be made from EPS foam covered with chicken wire and a concrete skin, approximately two inches thick.

He started with 4 by 5 by 8 feet EPS foam blocks. In the end, the sculptures were sturdy and durable, but weighed less than 1/8 what they would have weighed if made from solid concrete. EPS foam can be carved by knife, hot-wire and landscape saw. Oleg developed the design and supervised every stage of fabrication, transportation of the finished sculpture to the site and installation.

Russian sculptor Oleg Lobykin worked with a playground safety expert. ?EUR??,,??She helped me to soften all rough edges and arrange angles so that everything was safe,?EUR??,,?? he explains.

?EUR??,,??One of the most interesting parts of the project was working with a playground safety expert,?EUR??,,?? Oleg said. ?EUR??,,??As an artist, my priorities were to stimulate the imagination, ensure that the sculpture was interactive and that it looks beautiful, but she helped me to soften all rough edges and arrange angles so that everything was safe.?EUR??,,?? Oleg says that he gets a lot of satisfaction from seeing children play on his work.

An exceptionally unique playground, Park LaBrea is a fun place to take kids, an impressive technical achievement, and a playful artistic representation of the tar pits?EUR??,,?? profound import in natural history. Oleg enjoyed the project a great deal, and hopes to partner with more landscape architects.