The Wagon Station Customizers

Chris James: With my Land Cruiser I make a small encampment out of the station, sleeping in the back of the truck and using the unit to keep gear for climbing in the vicinity.

Jennifer Nocon: To fully integrate into the desert community I needed to create a private space where I could realistically envision myself slowing down.

Carolyn Castaño: Inspired by Joshua Tree and the new age and metaphysical cultures it attracts, the wagon station serves as a personal space for meditation and transcendental thought.

Connie Walsh and Chris Young: WGNSTN is a utilitarian unit incorporating elements of both an alpine climbers refuge and an accessible semi-urban retreat.

Guy Green: I decided to build with junk and scraps native to the area, and wanted the unit to look and feel as if it grew from the site.

Aaron Noble: I slept in the uncustomized Wagon Station and felt cramped and cut off from the psychedelic desert of my youth. Rebellious, I punched it full of holes and sought shelter from my mother. She made me this quilt.

Russell Whitten: Russell’s elaborately hand crafted red and silver wagon station customization reflects his avid enthusiasm for dirt bike culture and all things with flames.

Chuck Moffit: Landscape for a dirty bomb…sleep with it and sit with it. Minimal intervention for maximal existential reflection.

Giovanni Jance: Giovanni’s wall panels are cut from three-dimensional renderings of sound waves extracted from ambient desert sounds that he recorded at A-Z West over the past years.

Veronica Fernandez and Peter Blackburn: It was not by chance that the wagons crossing the West were called prairie schooners; traversing a broad expanse as they did, they had all the appearances of boats adrift in an infinite sea.

Jonas Hauptman: Jonas tripled his interior space by exploding the form and adding extra sections. His Design also integrates below deck sleeping quarters, wood stove, porch stoop, second door, cabinets and a writing nook.

David Dodge and Andrea Zittel: David and Andrea joined their two wagon stations together, back to back, to form a semi-circular unit. Half is for sleeping while the other half is for reading eating and storage functions.