URBAN ART

Twenty years ago, Chicago tycoon Lewis C. Weinberg noticed that one of the characteristics of his gasket business, Fel-Pro, was “that you generate a lot of interesting scrap.” Consequently, Weinberg hired sculptor Ted Gall to fashion the scrap metal into objects of beauty. The resulting artworks, which ranged in size from 1 to 30 feet tall, were then installed throughout his plant.

Upon retirement in 1980, Weinberg, 77, moved to a huge spread in Ramona, a small desert town northeast of San Diego, scrap metal and artistic dream in tow. He teamed up with Frank Koge, a master designer of Japanese gardens, and in 1982 they created Sho-En (Pine Garden), a sculpture garden nestled among 50 acres of Japanese black pines. “We thought that the introduction of sculpture into a big tree forest would be fun,” Weinberg says.

Acquisitive types will be pleased to learn that Sho-En, which opened to the public 2 1/2 years ago, is also a nursery and gallery. The hundreds of sculptures (from a range of internationally known artists and priced from $25 to $90,000), thousands of trees, exotic Asian plants, stone lanterns and basins are all for sale, and new inventory is constantly being planted or commissioned. Weinberg even built a studio so that larger, more unwieldy objects d’industrial art could be constructed on site.

Still, many come to experience beauty unsullied by commerce. School groups and individual looky-loos meander freely through Sho-En’s peaceful paths. “We are primarily interested in beautifying the environment,” Weinberg explains. “If, in the process, we can make it a profitable operation, so much the better.”