Poppies at the pharmacy: mural approved for Longs Poppies at the pharmacy: mural approved for Longs (March 17, 2004)

By Rebecca Wallace
Almanac Staff Writer

If happiness is a field of poppies, then the painted people cavorting across a mural envisioned for a wall at Longs Pharmacy in Menlo Park should be downright gleeful.

One more thing to boost their spirits: the mural was given the thumbs-up on March 12 by the city's Arts Commission.

Six feet high and 12 feet wide, the mural will go in at Sharon Heights shopping center facing Sharon Park Drive as part of an expansion for Longs, which will double in size to 10,500 square feet. The $800,000 construction falls under Menlo Park's public art law, which holds that developers of commercial, industrial and municipal projects that cost at least $250,000 must pay 1 percent of costs to install a piece of public art on the site.

Created by artist Brenda Cole Seymour of the Mural Arts company in San Francisco, the mural will cost about $6,800, with the remainder of the mandated $8,000 going for administrative costs, said George Ramstad, design manager and architect for the project.

Fittingly for a pharmacy, the mural is meant to illustrate the concept of health and wellness, he said: "Not just the individual has to be healthy. You have to have a healthy environment and a healthy community."

While some business owners have criticized the public art law as an unfair burden, Mr. Ramstad said navigating Menlo Park's process went smoothly. Longs has included murals at its stores in other cities, he said.

As part of the Sharon Heights expansion, the Longs will include a new feature: a drive-through window that may appeal to sick people picking up prescriptions in their pajamas, Mr. Ramstad said.

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