Thoughts about the three main similarities between humans and trees:

American Hardwood trees are like humans in three distinct and profound ways:

1. Both are mostly water
2. Both have a peak life span of approximately 80 years
3. Both are completely unique

Let’s talk about items #2 and #3.  While humans can live longer than 80 years, trees can also.  However, past this peak life span,  trees and humans are both vulnerable to disease and injury, generally declining in health.

A symbiotic relationship exists between trees and humans.  Humans breathe in oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide, while trees breathe in carbon dioxide and exhale oxygen.  During a tree’s life span it has been absorbing carbon diligently and when it passes its peak and declines in health it begins to leach its stored carbon back into the atmosphere.  While it seems counterintuitive, proper sustainable management of the forest begins with the extraction of the trees closest to their peak life.  In harvesting those beautiful, healthy mature trees when they have basically stored all of the carbon they will store in life, you not only allow for sunlight to get to the forest floor, thereby encouraging fresh growth, but you capture the carbon in that tree forever, even as the tree is transformed into various wood products.  The only way the stored carbon in hardwood products will ever be released is through fire.

The forests of the United States have been well managed for more than a century through “selection cutting”, which means the extraction of the mature trees rather than clear cutting.  By taking only those trees closest to their peak life, new growth takes its place.  For every tree that is harvested in the United States, 1.9 trees take its place through natural regeneration.  As a result of this careful management of the forest resource, there is nearly twice as much hardwood growing in the United States now as compared to 50 years ago.

The third and most important similarity between humans and trees is that each tree, like each human, is unique and beautiful in its own way.  To assume a post-industrial revolution mindset in the design process, that all hardwood flooring, for example, needs look the same, is to invite heartache and disappointment.  Every tree, based on the soil in which it grew, the length of its growing season, and general environment will develop different colors, no matter how slight.  If a designer or architect revels in the unique nature of hardwoods instead of fighting this natural variation, they will be rewarded with a space or piece of furniture that will never be duplicated.

Those of us who are fortunate enough to be a part of the hardwood business can feel proud of the fact that with every tree harvested, rendered into boards, kiln dried and made into flooring, millwork, doors or furniture, we are actually making forests healthier and bringing beauty to the world.

I have told architects for several years the sad story of a large home being built in 2001 for a very famous celebrity. When I was still selling lumber for Frank Miller Lumber I was called by all of the hardwood flooring suppliers in the region, all looking for lumber for 10,000 square feet of rift sawn white oak flooring for the house. Simply put, the specifications for the rift sawn white oak flooring could never be met. I told everyone the truth in the hopes that the specifications would change and come down to reality. The specs didn’t change, because one distributor kept calling mills until someone said “we have that lumber”.

The flooring manufacturer was shipped lumber that did not resemble the specification except that it was white oak. Now desperate, he tried his best to satisfy the contractor, who tried to satisfy the celebrity homeowner. Making a long, painful story short, no one was satisfied. The hardwood flooring manufacturer went bankrupt waiting to get paid and the contractor wound up in court for years, fighting for the remaining $1.5 million owed on the job.

Why did I title this blog “The Bugatti Veyron”?  Because the Bugatti is my dream car, in the same way this house was a dream house for this family.  Let’s pretend I had $1.5 million to buy this car and put down a hefty deposit, ordering a cobalt blue Bugatti.  I would have to wait 9 months for the car to arrive, as only 6 are imported each year.  A call from the dealer tells me that my car has arrived.  I go to the dealer, give him the balance owed and he hands me the keys.  The dealer then points to a cherry red Bugatti in the lot, not the cobalt blue Bugatti I ordered.  When I complain about the color, the dealer says that while it isn’t the color I wanted, it is still a Bugatti.   I have the option of waiting another 9 months in the hope of getting the color I want or driving away in the red car.  Of course I take the car.  However, no matter how much I might love my Bugatti, I would still be upset every time I get in it, because it isn’t what I ordered.

The same would be true for the family with an expansive floor that doesn’t look anything like the floor they ordered. Yes, it is still white oak, but no one told them that they couldn’t have the special rift sawn white oak flooring they ordered until it was too late. The moral of the story is to minimize heartache and disappointment by running reality checks on your aesthetic vision at the very beginning of the project.

As I travel all over the U.S. and around the world talking to architecture and design firms, I have been struck by the unbelievable volume of planned construction of five and six-star hotels in the next five years.  One hotel group has 80, yes 80 hotels scheduled for China in the next five years.  Another has 15 planned for India in the next five years.  These are only two hotel companies and two countries.  When added together, the scope of planned building is mind-boggling.  All of these hotel properties are massive undertakings.  For example, a hotel in China that is under construction will have its reception desk on the 101^st floor.  I am advising on a large hotel in India, one in Saudi Arabia and another in Qatar.  When I consider the amount of man-hours and intellectual capital involved with the design and construction processes and multiply that by the number of projects on the books, I find it extremely hard to comprehend.  One large international hotel company with whom I am working established an office in Dubai in early 2011 and had 40 projects immediately and now, half a year later, they are working on an additional 40.

There is a place for American hardwoods in many of these properties as a sustainable and beautiful interiors material.  I was asked this week about using American hardwoods in environments that aren’t “controlled”, such as in Singapore, where I was speaking.  My natural reaction is to say that all indoor environments are controlled, but upon quick reflection, I realized that there are many living spaces in tropical climates where windows are open most of every day.  In those environments the most logical choice would be quartersawn Red or White Oak which will only shrink and swell in thickness rather than width as it adjusts to the moisture in the environment.

As all of these hotel projects take shape it is my mission to make sure that sustainable American hardwoods are considered.  There are significant opportunities in the next five to ten years and as an industry, we should be at the table.

I have been assisting some designers and architects in the past year who find themselves up against the clock on a job where hardwood specifications aren’t being met. I tell them the problem is that it’s very rare that the people who are trying to get the job will actually tell the truth about what is and is not possible.

Imagine a scenario where you get three hardwood flooring companies together to bid on a job that is simply impossible to produce. This could be for myriad reasons — the widths and lengths aren’t in synch with the species, the color won’t be perfectly matched to your sample or the time line is simply too short. Now imagine that two of the company reps say they can absolutely produce exactly what you have specified. The third rep ponders for a minute and says that it can’t be done for any price or any time frame. My advice is to dismiss the first two people and talk to the last guy who was willing to walk away from the job.

Everyone wants work, and if someone is willing to pass on the job, they must have a good reason. They can help you re-imagine the space in such a way that it will be unique and beautiful, even if different than your original vision. It is much better to do this exercise at the very beginning of the project than find out at the tail end that the job was never going to look the way you envisioned it. No one wants to have to go back to the client 18 months into the project to renegotiate the look of the space, now based on reality. A bit of work up-front with experts will save a great deal of heartache later. Ask for a truthful evaluation of your hardwood specifications.

The Barnes Collection is considered to be the most valuable private art collection in the world, valued at anywhere from $25 to $40 billion. It is also possibly the largest, with more than 2,500 objects, including over 800 paintings by artists such as Degas, Picasso, Matisse, van Gogh, Cezanne and Renoir. In 1922, the collection was housed at the institution, which was founded by a successful chemist named Albert Barnes. I went to school across the street from it in Merion, Pa. I was always curious about the collection, but never able to see it, since the Foundation didn’t want a bunch of school kids wandering around the building. That changed today, as I found myself inside the Barnes Collection’s new museum on Ben Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia.

The building was designed by New York architects Tod Williams and Billie Tsien, and it is nothing less than spectacular. One of the key elements of this iconic museum is the 30,000 square feet of quarter-sawn white oak flooring made by Muscanell Millworks, using FSC^® oak lumber from Frank Miller. Frank Miller was involved in the project from the beginning, keeping the supply on track and helping the architects realize their aesthetic vision. During my visit, one of the project managers told me that Frank Miller’s quarter-sawn white oak was the most beautiful hardwood he has ever seen — and he has been in the construction business for more than 20 years. The flooring installer echoed those sentiments. It has been an honor to have our hardwood included in the design of the Barnes Collection Museum. We are thrilled for Opening Day on May 19^th and hope you will have the opportunity to visit the museum to see the finished floors firsthand, along with other remarkable pieces of art.

When I talk to architectural design professionals about using sustainable quartersawn hardwood in their designs, I always stress the importance of connecting to the source of the lumber. By connecting to the source, you can develop specifications for the project that are based in reality. If left to the various contractors and subcontractors involved, the final project will often bear only a faint resemblance to the original vision.

As a designer, it is important to know the realities of the resource and rely on the experts to help you. If American hardwood has a place in your aesthetic vision, let Frank Miller Lumber help you to make it a reality.

I have 25 years of experience in the hardwood industry, 16 of which have been as a representative of Frank Miller Lumber, the world’s largest quartersawn hardwood sawmill.

For the past several years I have been on a crusade of sorts as a consultant to architects and designers across the U.S., teaching them about the wonders and realities of sustainable U.S. hardwoods and the most beautiful form of those hardwoods, quartersawn. I tell architects and designers that it is my job to inspire the use of U.S. hardwoods in their designs where such inspiration might not exist. Further, I will teach them the differences between plainsawn and quartersawn hardwoods, helping to find the appropriate use for both.

The challenge is to take the unbridled imagination of designers and squeeze it through the funnel of reality so that the vision can be realized in the end. As is true of humans, every tree is unique, and there are limitations that need to be taken into account during the design process. Just because you can imagine 10,000 square feet of rift white oak flooring with a 10-inch face, all color matched with no medullary ray, it doesn’t mean it is possible to produce.

I will keep you apprised of my travels, observations and cautionary tales here in these blogs and on my Twitter feed, @QuartersawnGuru.