If you followed me on Instagram you would find that during my world travels I love to take pictures of beautiful automobiles.  Of course, the U.A.E. is a virtual cornucopia of high-priced exotic cars ripe for iPhone cameras.  Along with the Bugatti Veyron I have always coveted the Bentley in all of its forms.  I thought recently of parallels between Bentleys and architectural design.

Architects and designers of high-end projects all share a goal, which is to create spaces and buildings that could be described as “iconic”.  I see all too often, during the “value engineering” phase of a project, that some of the most visible elements of the building are changed for financial reasons.  Never is a component, specifically flooring or millwork in this context, value engineered to become more expensive.

I contend that the most visible part of a building is the floors, often referred to as the “biggest piece of furniture in the building”.  If they are specified as hardwood, they should always be the most beautiful and sustainable hardwoods available.  The most beautiful hardwood floors are relatively expensive, just as a Bentley is more expensive than a Ford.

One would never try to negotiate a price on a Bentley by suggesting substitutions for certain parts of the car.  One would never suggest to the Bentley dealer, for example, that you really only want a car that looks like a Bentley and it should be cheaper if those soft leather seats were changed to cloth or the 12 cylinder engine was switched to a 6 cylinder.  If you want a Bentley you want it because it is one of the most beautiful automobiles on the planet and each one is specially built for its owner.  If you want a Bentley, you will pay whatever it costs.

There are many challenging financial realities that come to bear in the construction of any commercial building or residence.  It is my fervent belief that if the commercial building or residence is to become known as “iconic”, beautiful hardwood floors will be part of that classification.  Each hardwood floor is unique and each imparts a warmth and character to the space that can never be precisely duplicated.  Compromising on the price of a hardwood floor can only result in heartache and disappointment in the long run.

The hardwood flooring specifications should be written in such a way to preclude substandard material substitution.  Just think about how disappointed you would be if you bought a Bentley with cloth seats, assembled by a randomly chosen mechanic, because it is less expensive.  To create an iconic interior space, you need to find the most highly rated flooring or millwork manufacturer, finisher and installer available and pay what they charge.  In doing so you can reasonably hold them accountable for high quality standards in the finished product.

Now that we have established that every beautiful building should feature hardwood floors and millwork, we should want the best.  The best floors and millwork are created with quartersawn hardwoods, the Bentley of hardwood.  Accept no substitutions.

On a recent trip to the U.A.E. I found out that New York University is opening a new campus in Abu Dhabi this year.  Frank Miller Lumber has quoted some quartersawn walnut and cherry that may be used in some of the flooring there.  When this caught my attention I did a bit of research and found that NYU also has a campus in Shanghai with another planned for Sydney, Australia in the near future.  A trend is starting and I think it opens the door to the use of American hardwoods and specifically quartersawn hardwoods in these facilities.   I was in Sydney in April speaking with architects and designers about using American hardwoods and I had a call from a large joinery firm in Singapore.  They are working on the “tender” (quote) for the interior joinery for the new Yale NUS College in Singapore.  The architects, Pelli Clark Pelli from New Haven, CT have designed the space to include Oak and Cherry, along with Teak and other indigenous species of hardwoods.

I was asked to attend a meeting about the project the next week and flew to Singapore to look at the project.  My first inclination was to tout the benefits of moving the hardwood specification from just “Oak” to “quartersawn white oak” for the joinery.  The reason for that is twofold.  One, most of the buildings at Yale in New Haven contain copious amounts of beautiful, stable quartersawn white oak and in some cases that white oak has been in place for centuries (Yale was established in 1701).  Two, in the Singapore environment, which is quite humid, quartersawn white oak would perform extremely well.  As the campus is due to open in the fall, it may be too late to change the specification to quartersawn white oak, but I consider it heartening to be invited into the conversation as a representative of the industry.

It would be very exciting to see quartersawn hardwoods in the floors for NYU Abu Dhabi, demonstrating the beauty and stability of the finest hardwood produced in the United States.  I have heard rumor of the U.A.E. courting another prestigious American University to build a campus there and I hope to be included in the discussions about the joinery and flooring for that project.  I am precluded from mentioning the University in question, but it would be a very exciting project.

The work of gaining a seat at the table for these discussions has been arduous and lengthy.  I am proud to represent the American hardwood industry as a whole in these discussions and more specifically a company that recognizes the importance of marketing to architects and designers worldwide.

I am often asked in my architectural presentations about my preference between engineered and solid wood floors.  In this blog I try to steer away from polarizing topics, but I decided to express my personal opinion on this question.  While there are different levels of quality in engineered floors as there are in any composite product, I always return to solid flooring as the best choice.  Naturally, I feel that quartersawn solid wood floors are the best choice for virtually any application, whether high traffic commercial or residential.

There are solid quartersawn white oak floors in chateaux in the Loire Valley that have seen many millions of visitors over 400 years and they are still there and quite serviceable.  I am working with an architectural firm on their design for a high profile museum.  They want to use quartersawn white oak next to terrazzo floors and expect 1.6 million visitors a year to walk those floors.  Their initial thought was to use engineered flooring, but I suggested solid flooring.  In my consultations with designers and architects my goal is to help minimize variables.  Engineered flooring represents a set of variables that are often not offset by significant cost savings.

One variable is the adhesives used in laminating the multi-ply substrate. Should any of those laminations fail, the floor begins to fail and every time someone walks over that spot it will click.  Additionally if you gouge an engineered floor, repair can be difficult.  With solid flooring the spot can be sanded out without revealing a substrate material. 

I simply look at history when thinking about this.  In my presentations I show slides of some McKim Meade & White mansions, notably in Newport, Rhode Island.  These are generally quartersawn white oak floors that were installed in the late 1800’s in an era before air conditioning.  The windows were raised in warm and humid conditions and they survived just fine and are as flat today as they were then.  There are solid wood floors that may not have survived in that humid environment as well as quartersawn white oak, and if there was engineered flooring in the 1800’s, perhaps that would have been a better choice for Plain Sawn Cherry and Walnut. 

There will always be debate over this question, with some saying that by using engineered flooring you extend the lumber by cutting multiple wear layers out of each inch of solid wood.  That is true, but the variables of substrate construction remain.  There is no need to worry about the lumber resource – we are growing twice as much hardwood in the U.S. as we are harvesting and ours is a sustainable forestry model for the world. 

In conclusion, high quality engineered floor can be the right choice for a variety of environments.  In my humble opinion, solid quartersawn white oak flooring is the highest quality, most durable American hardwood flooring available. 

To independent architect/interior designer Jae Chang, modern design is about taking something classic and proven and making it contemporary, habitable and inviting. When he was approached to design and renovate a Madison Avenue apartment for a fellow architect, he leapt at the chance to transform the outdated, underused space into a modern, functional, showcase apartment.

Located near the historic Morgan Library in Manhattan, the prewar building was rife with Old World charms: high ceilings, arched doorways, thick walls and a sturdy foundation. Chang used the distinctions of the classic building as inspiration, designing a neoteric New York apartment with a mid-century feel.

According to Chang, modern design isn’t just about creating something brand new and shiny, with sharp edges and eccentric angles. It is also about renovation and revival, simply clearing the forest for new growth.

“The project was a white canvas, but I wanted to evoke the old soul of the building,” said Chang. “It was a gut renovation, but the building had such good bones. So we replicated existing details of the structure. We went with a simple crown, simple base and simple panels. I wanted it to be both modern and timeless.”

One of the common complaints of residents of prewar apartment buildings is creaky floors. Chang addressed this summarily, choosing only rift sawn white oak from Frank Miller Lumber for the hardwood flooring.

“The floor was one of the most important things I wanted to address early,” added Chang. “We ended up going with white oak to keep it lighter in color and modern, but durable.”

Completed in spring 2011, the 1,500 square-foot project took Chang and his team 11 months to complete. The hardwood flooring was manufactured byWilson Woodworks.

Last week I came across the 2010 RPA (Resources Planning Act) Assessment.  This the report generated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture reflecting the state of the America’s forests now and into the future.  This report comes out every 10 years and it is interesting to note that in 2000 the report painted a rosy picture of America’s forest resource.  I would characterize the 2010 report as the “glass half empty” report.

The basic facts remain the same about our forest resource – we are growing about twice as much as we are cutting, all of those trees are busily absorbing carbon and providing healthy ecosystems for flora and fauna.  The more than 4 million private landowners who control the majority of the hardwood producing land spearhead America’s sustainable forest management.  We have been sustainably managing our forests for more than 100 years and those practices will continue well into the future.  The “glass half empty” tone comes from applying computer-modeled scenarios of forest resource stressors gone awry in various ways.  Those stressors could be in the form of climate change, water usage, pest infestations, urbanization and myriad land use issues.  The report takes these various doomsday scenarios out to 50 years in the future, leaving the reader to wonder how healthy our forests are.  The answer is that empirically verifiable data suggests that our forests are extremely healthy.  For example, the report suggests that “forests face threats to their long-term health and sustainability”.  It goes further to say that 8% of our forests are at risk to increased activity by forest insect pests and pathogens.  It doesn’t say that with all of the possible threats that our forests face in the future, 92% of our forests will remain healthy and vibrant in the worst-case scenarios.

Perhaps representatives of competing construction materials, suggesting that wood is not as sustainable as promoted, could manipulate this “glass half empty” tone.  When thinking about sustainable American hardwoods in design, you can feel good knowing that trees keep growing and absorbing carbon.  Concrete and steel are manufactured in carbon-costly processes that can hardly be described as sustainable.

I refer designers and architects to The Life Cycle Assessment put together on behalf of AHEC (American Hardwood Export Council) and peer reviewed to assure data integrity.  It was published in July of 2012 and addresses all concerns about using hardwoods in sustainable design.  Please look it up:

http://www.americanhardwood.org/sustainability/life-cycle-assessment/

The glass is definitely half full.

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER

I am often reminded of a cartoon I saw years ago of a Gatling gun salesman trying to talk to a Commander on a medieval battlefield where a war is being fought with arrows and swords.  The Commander says something like “I don’t have time to talk to a salesman, I have a battle to fight”.

Getting the opportunity to speak to a group of architects can be an arduous task, involving many phone calls and emails, often spanning months.  In my situation I am not “selling” a thing you can look up in a catalog.  I am, rather, presenting the story of the finest sustainable American hardwood for cabinetry, flooring, millwork and furniture – Quartersawn.  Once I have actually scheduled a presentation, I find that my audiences are attentive, polite and very grateful for the information I present.  I talk about the sustainability of American hardwoods, its carbon sequestration and the beauty and durability of Quartersawn in varied applications.  The thread that ties it all together is the truth.  I always tell my audiences that I serve as someone upon whom they can call to get truth about specifications for hardwoods.  If I am approached to give advice about American hardwoods in design and the application is simply not compatible with the nature of the species in question, I will tell them so.  Architects and Designers can’t be experts in every material with which they work, so I offer that resource for free to help them make good decisions at the beginning of the project.

I tell a wonderful story about American Hardwoods that needs no white lie embellishments.  For example, I was in a meeting in New York recently discussing the specifications for 300,000 square feet of Quartersawn White Oak flooring for a building.  The specification was for one width, all color and grain matched flooring to be produced in 26 months.  I did some rough math and told the person with whom I was meeting that their specification represented about  .0001 % of any Quartersawn log, so the specification was impossible to meet in that time frame, if ever.  He was grateful that I told him the truth, as he had two flooring companies tell him that they could deliver that flooring according to the specification.  This may have been wishful thinking on their part.

The architecture and design community face a barrage of product information, some of which can be misleading, causing problems during the final execution of their project.  What they want to hear once they have granted me access to their office and precious time is true and valuable information, which I am honored to offer.

When I lecture about Quartersawn American hardwoods I get to tell the wonderful story about sustainable forest management at the same time.  Before I can make the case for Quartersawn hardwood as the most durable and beautiful form of hardwoods it is important that I talk about the carbon footprint of bringing that hardwood to market.

As a tree grows it absorbs carbon as part of photosynthesis.  As the tree reaches its peak of maturity the amount of carbon it will absorb in its lifetime diminishes.  In successful management of the resource, those mature trees are harvested, opening the canopy so that light will get to the forest floor and new trees will take their place and begin anew the carbon absorption process.  As that harvested tree is rendered into boards, kiln dried and eventually made into flooring, millwork, cabinetry and furniture, the absorbed carbon is captured forever (unless the manufactured piece burns).

In general terms, when balanced against the carbon costs of harvest, sawmilling, drying and even transportation around the globe, American hardwoods arrive at their destination as a carbon negative product.  This means that even when all of the production carbon costs are applied, the lumber still has plenty of stored carbon in it.  One could argue that when someone imports quartersawn hardwoods from Indiana into Singapore for a project, they are actually importing carbon credits.

I am often asked around the world about the carbon costs of transportation.  I explain that there are economies of scale at work when 11,000 board feet of quartersawn White Oak is put in a container in Indiana, loaded on a train with hundreds of other containers and ultimately put on a ship with thousands of other containers.  The carbon cost of transportation per container is drastically reduced in this case.  That same amount of White Oak put on the road on a tractor-trailer represents an enormous comparative carbon footprint.

For more detail on this topic, I highly recommend that you visit the website for the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC) and read all about their exhaustive, detailed, peer reviewed LCA (Life Cycle Assessment).  That web address is www.americanhardwood.org .  This site also offers a wealth of information about American hardwoods species and case studies of application.

Carbon sequestration is just one of the many facets of the positive role that hardwoods play in green design.

When I talk to architects and designers about using American hardwoods I am usually battling preconceived notions of how our forest resource is managed in the United States.  The destruction of the rain forests taints the picture of sustainable American hardwoods.  The media has done a great job of convincing people that when we use a tree we are killing the planet in some small way.  The information I present involves a great deal of counter intuition.

For example, due to societal conditioning, it seems counter intuitive to suggest that the more you utilize our forest resource, the healthier the forests become.  It is also counter intuitive to say that there is twice as much hardwood growing now than there was 50 years ago in America.  Another part of my presentation that seems counter intuitive is that when it is time to harvest hardwood trees from a particular stand of hardwoods, the tree chosen is the most beautiful mature tree.  To many this feels like killing Bambi.

First, the destruction of the rain forest has far more to do with conversion of the forest to agricultural purposes than random timber harvest.  Second, it is through selection harvest that we keep our forests healthy.  The more we systematically remove the mature trees, the more new growth is encouraged.  When we harvest trees at their peak of life, we capture the carbon that the tree has been dutifully absorbing all of its life.  Once that tree has been rendered into boards and then into a piece of furniture, the carbon is captured forever.

It seems counter intuitive that the sound of a chain saw in a mature stand of American hardwoods is actually indicative of healthy forest management.  Even more counter intuitive that American hardwood can ship from Indiana and arrive in Australia as a carbon negative building product.  This is due to the amount of carbon stored in the wood versus the carbon footprint of the sawmilling, drying and transportation on of the wood.

The good thing about dealing with all of this counter intuitive information is that it is all empirically verifiable.  I tell my audiences that they all have a way to assess the health of America’s forests – Google Earth™.  Just pick any state in the eastern US and fly across it and you will see miles and miles of healthy hardwood forests.  If I were one to put bumper stickers on my car, mine might read: “Save The Planet – Use More American Hardwoods.”

I have been in the hardwood business for nearly 26 years.  The last 4 years have been spent talking to designers and architects about using sustainable American hardwoods in their designs for residences, hotels, restaurants, museums and public buildings of all sorts.  I am struck occasionally by the fact that designers and architects are willing to subjugate their aesthetic vision to the economies of substituting inferior materials in the most visible parts of their projects., such as flooring.

I have visited beautiful job sites where the least expensive, lowest quality flooring has been installed, presumably to save money.  Naturally, if I were looking at tract housing, where every economy must be utilized, I completely understand.  However, when the floors in question are installed in multi million dollar residences or gorgeous hotel, I can’t help but think that the people involved with the realization of the designers’ vision are simply looking at the world through the wrong end of the binoculars.  Saving money in the short term, while having to refinish or replace the flooring within a few years, is shortsighted.

I was in Japan recently and ate lunch at what is considered to be one of the finest Sushi restaurants in Tokyo.  We went there because they serve wonderful seafood in an elegant setting.  No one in the party would want the chef to purchase inferior seafood and this chef certainly purchased the best.  There was no question about how much we would pay for the lunch.  We paid what he charged us for lunch and we were very happy.

It is the same for a piece of fine furniture or beautiful floor.  Find the best manufacturer, one with a stellar reputation, and pay him what he charges for the best quality.  When I started selling lumber in the 80’s I would call on small manufacturers who thought that they would make more money if they could only purchase their lumber for less money.  They would battle on price while their employees were smoking on company time in the parking lot, talking about a football game.  That was where the profit margins were going, not to the price of the raw material.  I tried, occasionally with success, to get them to turn the binoculars around and see the situation clearly.  The idea is to purchase the best raw material, focus on using that material to produce the nicest flooring, furniture or millwork and charge what you think it is worth without apology.

The best hardwood produced in the US is quartersawn hardwood.  Design with it and make sure that those who produce your vision use it.  Pay what it costs to work with the best hardwood.  The finished product will be beautiful and last for centuries.