San Diego Reader

I was walking around Hillcrest recently and wondered what's with the lifelike metal animal sculptures in front of houses on the 3700 block of First Avenue. I found out through the Hillcrest Town Council that the sculptor (and owner of those rental houses) is general contractor Martin Calderon of Calderon Builders, Inc.

Calderon says he's always liked to play around with construction materials. He had scrap metal left over from a job site and “put things together and created a small turtle.” From there, he says it “snowballed” — now he has about 15 rusty-patina sculptures arranged around the many palm trees that he planted.

“My whole intention is to keep it natural looking,” he says.