The Putting Lot

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This venue is closed.

Created in 2009 by a group of twentysomething transplants and staffed by a team of volunteers, this summertime miniature-golf course draws a mix of families and American Apparel–clad nostalgists to what was formerly a vacant, garbage-filled Bushwick lot. Each of the nine holes was designed by a different artist primarily using reclaimed materials—and thus providing the unique experience of putting through a salvaged drainpipe, a working bicycle, and an abandoned video-game machine. Each hole aims to create a discussion about issues ranging from affordable housing (golfers putt over and through the sunken roof of a traditional house) to urban sustainability (balls go through a reservoir of collected rainwater that is used to tend the lot’s plants). But the transformation from empty lot to artsy playland is most apparent on the very first hole, where a life-size photograph of the exact space, pre-course (empty bottles, discarded cigarettes, and all), is laid over the now-cleaned-up area. — Molly Finkelstein