Remember our friend Jason's project with Urban Tree Forge? Well, they've been busy again. This time for the G-20 economic summit at the Phipps Conservatory. Urban Tree Forge was asked to create 12 oak slab tabletops for a dinner and discussion at the summit. And they had just two weeks to make it happen....
Fortunatly, when Urban Tree Forge's owner and founder, John Metzler, was approached by the Phipps about the project, the reclaimed trees pictured above had just happened to come out of the kiln. So the team at Urban Tree Forge was able to set right to work.
Jason, who is an artist-in-residence at UTF, describes the experience: "The tables have one square edge and one live edge (we knocked the bark off and did some sculpting). They are 30-37" wide depending on the width of the live edge and the size of the starting log. There were four 6'-8" tables and eight 9'-6" tables. The tables started out as a single oak slab roughly 28"-34" wide and were ripped in half with a 6" sycamore accent strip. The tables are ordered and the live edge is sculpted to run from one table to the next to provide a continuous flowing edge."
He continues: "It was a great experience, and it is pretty cool to think that i was part of making 12 tables that some of the most important people in the world had a meal at."
Images: Urban Tree Forge and Jason Boone unless otherwise noted. (thanks, Jason!)
© 2009 Apartment Therapy
So a bunch of trees were cut down to make a one-off, used once dinner table for a bunch of powerful bigwigs?
WTF is so green and sustainable about that? You know what's sustainable - renting a bunch of fricking folding banquet tables from a catering company and throwing some linens on top. THAT'S sustainable.
view Dave's profile
They weren't cut down, Dave.
They were "reclaimed."
view Raini's profile
And that, Dave, means that they had ALREADY been cut down (because they had to be) and were waiting to be put to use.
Now, somebody will buy or be given, the tables & they will continue to be used.
However, I also get your point & it's relevant, too.
view mei-ling's profile
Couldn't they just have rented tables? What's going to happen to all that work after the dinner? And what's up with the lousy base?
view Comicgeek's profile
Welll... there's a few reasons why this is sustainable:
First: the trees were coming down because they were diseased and dying on the lawn of our local observatory... so they were going to become firewood, mulch or land fill. All of which puts the sequestered carbon from in the wood back into the environment. Reusing keeps the carbon sequestered while reducing our landfill volume.
Second: reusing within our community utilizes local natural resources, supports our local economy and reduces our local carbon footprint.
Third; The tables are being kept and used on a regular basis by Phipps Conservatory and will serve our community for the next few generations...Generations.
Fourth: rental folding tables are made from particle board in some other part of the world then shipped here; and will last for what?... 10 to 15 years then become landfill? The glue in particle board is a formaldehyde glue.That's all sustainable how?
This is a great early step in our community becoming more aware of the natural resources which are in front of us here in our community. These efforts will enable us to be self reliant of ourselves, reduce our reliance on our forest lands for our wood, and reduce our carbon footprint.... so look around and see where you can make a difference in your community!!
view johnmetz33's profile
An interesting stat from the USDA: BY utilizing our urban forest resources we can reduce our reliance on the logging of our forest lands by over 30%... That's a pretty big number folks.
Another from the USDA: we landfill over 30 million cubic yards of trees per year, every year... Wow!
view urbantreeforge's profile