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Luxury on Wheels
Windsor man turns 1987 Airstream into hip, mobile second home
By Meg McConahey
Saturday, January 11, 2003
It was designed to inspire the travel dreams of the suburbia-bound middle class.
Sleek, shiny and silver, like an aircraft on wheels, the classic Airstream has been a timeless icon of good design, ever since it was first introduced as ``The Clipper'' in 1936.
But to Brian Ogan, you can't judge an RV by its superb, aluminum skin.
Ogan, whose tastes run toward '50s retro chic and ultra-sleek European modern, wanted to invest in an RV for short and long trips to places such as Baja.
"I rented a couple and I completely loved it," he said. "But they were so ugly."'
A modernist to the marrow, he was attracted to the trenchant look of the Airstream trailer, and set about finding one for sale on the Internet.
"It just had to be that silver bullet," he said.
Ogan eventually located an older woman in Visalia who was ready to part with her 1987 Airstream RV for $35,000.
And yet, Ogan found the factory-issue decor uninspired. In fact, he wasn't sure he could even bear to spend a two-week vacation confined to the mass-produced, oak and brass interior.
So Ogan gutted the 34-foot-long land cruiser and started over with all new walls, floor coverings, cabinets, furniture, fixtures and appliances. The result is a miniature version of his own home in the hills above Windsor, a whitewashed Mediterranean villa that like the Airstream parked outside, gives no hint of the radically modern decor within.
"If you're living with this kind of design stuff, how could you imagine spending so much time in something with floral sofas and shag carpeting," he shudders. "I didn't want to compromise the way I live just because I wanted to go on the road. I wanted it to be luxurious."
Ogan is reclining in a playful Leolux gold couch of chrome and textured leather, reminiscent of waiting-room furniture from the 1950s. He's dressed to match the decor, in solid navy with yellow bowling-shoe sneakers. Between the twin sofas in his living room are low, curvilinear Art Deco coffee tables. In one corner, a museum-quality stainless steel art chair by Ron Arad gleams like a polished mirror over white Carrera marble floors.
Means and imagination
Ogan, who co-owns, with partner Rainer Lagemann, a pair of high-end modern furniture stores in Berkeley and San Francisco called The Magazine, admits he was spoiled. But he also maintains that if you have the means and the imagination, why not design a motor home that reflects your own sensibilities?
"Manufacturers think that a modern RV, even a luxury one, means a lot of white cabinetry and that 1970s-style RV decor with big poofy sofas and lots of gold tassles," he complained.
For Ogan, the Airstream is more than a recreational vehicle. It's a second residence. Since he spends so much of his t
ime at his shops in the Bay Area, it has become a luxury pied-a-terre that he parks in a warehouse in Berkeley and moves at whim.
He spent a year researching materials, furniture, fixtures and appliances that could be adapted or re-sized for a compact space. He spared no expense. Although he had access to dealer discounts, he figures it would cost $230,000 retail to create something similar for his own clients, two of whom have already expressed interest in custom-ordering one for themselves.
Ogan is not alone in his passion for the Airstream. Nearly 70 years after it was launched by company founder Wally Byam onto America's highways, the silver road ship is suddenly chic. Lucy Liu's character in the movie version of "Charlie's Angels" made one her permanent address. Fashion designer Cynthia Rowley uses an Airstream as a guest home and uber-designer Ralph Lauren introduced for the millennium a line of custom-designed Airstreams with the buyer's choice of four preppy interiors.
But Ogan's is singular in its salute to urban hip at a time when many people are taking vintage Airstreams and restoring them to their 1950s glory.
His challenge in creating a luxury apartment on wheels was keeping things small scale and light.
The 35-year-old designer had much of the furniture custom adapted for his compact space. For the driver and passenger seats, he commissioned Ricaro, which specializes in sports car interiors, to design a vented, black leather seat with adjustable arms and built-in heating and air conditioning.
Custom-adapted
Ogan's sofa, textured leather in burnt orange, has a retro look, and was custom-adapted by Walter Knoll to fit the proportions of an RV. For dining, he picked twin tulip chairs in mid-'60s yellow-green. He replaced the legs of the Pierre Paulin chairs with swiveling, lazy Susan-type bases that always return the chairs to center, facing the table.
The floors are lightweight cork, and the ceiling's covered with corrugated aluminum tiling that mimics the exterior shell. The cabinets are a painted laminate in a swirl of orange and black mindful of a '60s acid trip.
The sleeping compartment is consumed with a California king-size bed and extra large closets with built-in light. After being discouraged by a fruitless search for small-scale modern fixtures, he had the idea of purchasing luxury lighting from a Danish company that specializes in fixtures for multimillion-dollar yachts.
Ogan hasn't sacrificed any luxury amenities in exchange for life on the road. He has a small two-in-one washer-dryer, a central vacuuming system for all that beach sand, a dishwasher and a built-in flat-screen TV.
Ogan still hasn't quite polished off the mobile town home where he lives several nights a week. His next project is to install a hidden compartment with a drop-down door to store the food and water bowls for Victoria and Alexandra, his matched set of Egyptian Basenji dogs. In their minimalist coats of black and white, they manage to complement the color scheme.
It may be over the top, but in the spirit of Airstream's beginnings. Founder Wally Byam initially began marketing his trailers by selling plans for $5 a pop to do-it-yourselfers.
Ogan spends about two nights a week in his mobile pad but is looking forward to more vacations, like a turtle, taking his home with him.
"Actually, traveling by Airstream, you see things and you experience things you'd never experience by going from one hotel to another," he said. "Going to Baja, every night is a different sunset, right on the ocean. That's just incredible, and yet you're in a beautiful home. You're just on wheels."
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