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by Tom Loftus

No doubt taking notes on SoCal's ability to transform hot dog stands, hot-rods, and hot-bods into quasi-iconic status, British Petroleum has transformed an unassuming gas station at the corner of Olympic and Robertson in Los Angeles into the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao + squeegees. 

As the press packet--yes, this gas station has its own Web site--explains, the station uses recycled steel, solar panels, motion sensor lights to reduce electricity, CO2-reducing greenery, a green roof, and other green best practices.

"It's not a prototype 'station of the future,'" the site explains, "It's a station for today that's a little better, a living lab where we can try out ideas for other stations and where people can find ideas they might want to bring into their own lives."

As long as the station dispenses good old cancer and greenhouse-causing gasoline--and not, say, clean spring water--we'll take this press release with a Hummer-sized grain of salt.  Still, according to DT-er Mollie Chen who stumbled across the corner during an L.A. weekend, the place looks neat.