The Mid-Century Monster was the brainchild of William Penn Mott Jr., an Oakland parks administrator. It was said on the Landscape Architecture Magazine that Mott wanted children to have somewhere to play on the shores of Lake Merritt.
However, Mott was tired of seeing the same old swings and slides on many playground structures, and so he commissioned Robert Winston, a local artist known for his rippling, free-flowing jewelry, to make a huge piece of public art — something big enough that could make kids feel like they were climbing trees.
Winston was up to the challenge. He designed a 40-foot-long structure, with angles and bends perfect for children to climb on, and all elegance of an Isamu Noguchi sculpture. In 1952 he completed the monster, which he painted light green. Two years later it graced the shores of the tidal lagoon.
The sculpture quickly became an Oakland icon, gracing the cover of Sly and the Family Stone’s 1968 album Dance to the Music. The cover shows the band members peering down from the monster’s green haunches.
But through time the Mid-Century Monster deteriorated. As of 2015, the green monster became a large washed-up husk. Its color has already faded to white, and some of its concrete limbs had begun to crack. Rust has also crept inside its mesh metal frame.
It had become a menace, for all the wrong reasons, and the city had fenced it off for public-safety purposes.
But after a long restoration project, the Mid-Century Monster was finally let out of the cage this year and back to its green color.
See more details over at Atlas Obscura.
(Image Credit: Mid-Century Monster Fan Club)