[a/s] More on the Wilsonart Trailer

[HHamp5246@xxxxxxx]

07/18/2000 - Tuesday - Page B 2  
  This Trailer Makes
for Happy Campers

By Linda Hales. THE WASHINGTON POST

THE DECADES-OLD mantra of 1940s Airstream travelers - "Live More, See More, 
Do More" - sounds tailor-made for today's practitioners of Xtreme sports. If 
only the trailer's decor were up to the modern challenge. 

As America's most famous caravan, the gleaming aluminum Airstream remains a 
certifiable design icon. But inside its timeless hull, old-fashioned vinyl 
and wood-grain veneers still reign. 

It's not hard to imagine what an inspired furniture maker could do if given 
half a chance. 

In fact, that's the story behind "Crossroads," a spiffy remodeling project 
involving a vintage trailer, a highly regarded California furniture designer, 
a New York product development firm and a famous maker of laminate kitchen 
counter tops. 

Together, the all-star cast turned a 1948 Airstream, purchased over the 
Internet, into a sleek cocoon suitable for today's design-savvy consumers. 

For a note of industrial chic, the old vinyl-clad walls were gutted and the 
silvery shell exposed. Layers of cool ice-blue and gray laminate curve around 
such necessities as a four-burner stove, sink, fridge and storage cabinets. 

"I've been obsessed with aluminum travel trailers for several years," says 
Jim Huff of Inside Design, the New York instigator of the project. "But the 
interior never really looked as cool as the exterior ... It didn't keep up 
with any sort of aesthetic." Huff sensed that rock climbers, surfers and 
weekending dotcom wizards might be potential trailer travelers - if a trailer 
could reflect their generation's sensibilities rather than their 
grandparents' tastes. With partner Grace Jeffers, he decided to develop a 
more stylish prototype. Jeffers brought in Wilsonart International, which has 
been experimenting with artist-designed, digitally printed laminates. Then 
they approached Christopher C. Deam, a noted furniture designer and 
architect, whose work with plywood reflects the populist spirit and modern 
styling of the mid-20th century masters, Charles and Ray Eames. 

Deam quickly sized up the problem: "You could hit the open road, but you were 
taking your grandmother's kitchen with you," he says. 

Legend has it that Airstream founder Wally Byam created the world's most 
classic travel trailer because his wife refused to go camping without her 
kitchen. Into his rounded, factory-made shells Byam tucked many of the 
comforts of a 1940s home. Authors Bryan Burkhart and David Hunt tell the 
story in "Airstream, the History of the Land Yacht" (Chronicle Books, 
$19.95). The book also shows a 1964 interior in all its avocado-green glory. 

Such models still are cherished at "The Happy Camper Place," otherwise known 
as Ace Fogdall RV in Cedar Falls, La. Sales manager Don King reports that 
business in old trailers (not all of them Airstreams) is brisk. What's more, 
from a decorative perspective, little has changed inside. Dark walnut has 
given way to lighter oak as the wood-grain veneer of choice. But campers 
still are pulling 50-year-old Airstreams, some with interiors in their third 
decade of use. 

Airstream Inc. declined to participate in Huff's adventure, so its name was 
covered up on the designer prototype. But there's no disguise for that 
familiar retro shell. 

It's not clear what will happen next. Huff has had offers to buy this one, 
but that wasn't his goal. He's still "investigating ways to get this turned 
into something in a showroom near you." Deam's desire was to create a space 
that was "familiar, futuristic and coincidentally, mobile." To fit trade show 
booths, the prototype had to be a 20-footer. No one seemed to mind that it 
had no room for a bath.