Trailer Park on Stanton

Over the weekend, a retro metal trailer was parked at the northeast corner of Stanton and Suffolk Streets.  Our first thought was a transient mobile home, but there was no truck in sight.  Piqued, we approached the door and learned that the vehicle is actually a publicly sanctioned garden on wheels.  In fact, it is designated a park by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.  How clever.

Conceived by artist Kim Holleman, the aptly-named Trailer Park was originally displayed in 2006 as part of the PORTABLE exhibition at the Storefront for Art and Architecture (97 Kenamre).  In her own words, the project is “a portable, natural, public park housed inside an 18′ x 8′ x 7″ mobile Coachman Travel Trailer.  The interior is fully planted, designed, and treated as a ‘real’ park.”

“Trailer Park is a portable, natural, public park housed inside an 18′ x 8′ x 7″ mobile Coachman Travel Trailer. The interior is fully planted, designed, and treated as a ‘real’ park.” Hand-laid brick planter beds containing lush shrubs, trees, and plants are complemented by masonry laid in the same tradition as public parks.  Ivy climbs the walls where a naturalistic slate rock waterfall and pond provide the soothing sound of trickling water.  Concrete and wooden benches invite visitors to rest and enjoy the park view.  Skylights provide rays of sunlight beaming in, kissing the interior.

Trailer Park is a site of paradox.  It is nonfunctional yet completely, yet completely functional in its re-purpose.  The trailer is convertible and mobile.  Modifications to the interior include a drip irrigation system fed from water tanks under the trailer body and can also be fed by a city water connection.  Trailer Park can be powered by battery or plug into a standard 110v electrical outlet.  Trailer Park’s new upgrades will include a new solar power system.”