Sawkill Lumber

Rainforest Hardwoods – Ipe (Tabebuia), Cumaru (Dipteryx odorata), Greenheart (Chlorocardium)

Nothing if father off from the concrete jungle than the natural one, like the largest of them all, the Brazilian Rainforest. One place where ecological and human made diversity collides is in the city parks and boardwalks, where woods harvested from the deep forests of South America are used extensively. NYC, as it turns out, is the largest consumer of tropical hardwoods in the country. The issue has drew the sharp criticism of environmental groups and the city responded. The fabled Coney Island Boardwalk will be replaced with concrete, except for the one block in front of the amusement area. Global warming is afar scarier ride than the Cyclone, so the question of nature verses nostalgia was an easy one.

It’s not so easy to pass on the irreplaceable qualities that Rainforest woods offer – remarkable resistance to water, rot and insects; incredibly hard (3x stronger than Oak), and a distinct weathered grey patina. But the harvesting of these woods creates wholesale destruction. Ipe trees for instance grow over a hundred feet apart, so there’s a lot of collateral damage – to untold species of plants, insects, animals and ultimately humans.But the experience of these woods still has one sustainable, but very limited form – as reclaimed lumber. FSC Ipe, for instance, has now been available since 2007, but certificates have been known to be occasionally forged. All of the tropical hardwoods that are used on the boardwalk are remarkably durable and insect resistant, naturally – they don’t need to be coated or impregnated with harsh chemicals. And there are a range of hardwoods that are harvested, with some difficult to distinguish from the next, not unlike the ‘white woods’ of Spruce, Hemlock and White Pine in the Northeast.

These woods are valuable as timber trees, especially for furniture, decking, and other outdoor uses. In the Amazon, tribes use it for hunting bows. It’s also a beautiful ornamental tree for landscaping gardens and public areas, with colorful flowers. It’s also a useful honey plants for bees, and popular with the hummingbirds. Certain products extracted from the tree have had a range of folk medicine uses.

Redwood (Sequoiadendron giganteum)

| The Tree, Uncategorized

Redwoods are the skyscrapers of treedom, reaching the height of a twenty-five story building, with trunks that cover the footprint of a tenement house. As iconic on the American landscape today as the Empire State Building. Redwoods once grew all throughout the northern hemisphere. Now, the last giant sequoias live on land just four times the size of Manhattan. The trees grow large through centuries of quick growth, sustained with thousands of gallons of water each day from snows melting high in the Sierras. The dense bark holds a great volume of water, which also protects the trees from fires.

Redwoods are named for their reddish-brown bark and heartwood, Chemicals in the trees fortify it with a remarkable resistance to disease and insects. They are in the family of conifers – along with the devalued Spruce and Hemlock – pre-historic trees that existed when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, when climate was warmer. Ice ages reduced remaining redwood species to just three small groups.

John Muir, the great naturalist said “There is something wonderfully attractive in this king tree, even when beheld from afar, that draws us to it with indescribable enthusiasm; its superior height and massive smoothly rounded outlines proclaiming its character in any company; and when one of the oldest attains full stature on some commanding ridge it seems the very god of the woods.” In New York City, Redwood is the choice of high budget coops for rooftop watertanks, as apt a use for the towering Sequoia as one can find.

Fresh Woods at Stumptown Coffee

| Featured, Uncategorized

Two new Stumptown Coffee locations build out much of the interior space with new wood, taking a pass on salvaged woods. There may be at least a few reasons why the vanguard artisan coffee maker made these material choices.

The design choices may not have easily allowed for reclaimed – At the Mhtn location, they used Black Walnut in a herringbone pattern (keep a look out for this growing trend). In Bklyn, they used an alternating color stain on a wider plank Oak. Or they were looking for cleaner modern lines, It could be that weathered antique woods have become almost a cliche for cafe design, that they were looking for a new design direction, while still retaining the natural warmth of wood. Or they were simply looking to save money up front – Probably not the overriding issue, but also added to the fact that reclaimed woods can be more prone to installation challenges and cut-off waste.

Many coffee chains use wood as a building material for the same reason, though with less distinctive designs. Stumptown also chose some funky cross cut tree trunks for their small tables and a semi-distressed blue finish on paneling that set the public space off from the work area. The design seems to come together well, with the new woods mixed with low lighting and tin plate (reproduction painted black). All and all, they seemed to pull off a difficult design aim with new woods – making them feel modern with a nod to the vintage, down-to-earth and still professional – and retaining the coveted look of authenticity – at least in the near term, since there may be a few trade-offs relative to reclaimed.

Sustainability – Are the woods FSC certified or do they just look good?

Shelf life – How will the woods look after a year or two? Scuffs, dents and wear tend to detract from the new floor look- and enhance a reclaimed floor.

Story – Do the woods carry a back story? Newly harvested woods from fast growing tree plantations don’t offer much of a compelling narrative, especially in relation to century old woods from virgin forests.

Without more information on the wood choices, we’re stumped.

Lower East Side Ecology Center

| Featured

The collatoral damage of the technology revolution happens before and after use. The manufacturing of a phone or computer involves a complex mix of toxic materials, sweatshop labor and non-renewable/non-recyclable/non-reusable resources. The troubles may only get sensed when it’s time to retire a product. There once were two options – hope that city services find a way to responsibly discard the item, or establish a personal archive of technology in an area storage unit.

Now there’s a third option. Lower East Side Ecology Center‘s electronic waste recycling is a unique and innovative program that allows residents to dispose of working and non-working electronics in an environmentally responsible way. People can bring unwanted electronics to e-waste collection events that take place in neighborhoods throughout the city, or drop off items at the Gowanus Brooklyn location.

The electronics warehouse will utilize some reclaimed wood from Sawkill Lumber, connecting materials that were once centuries apart.