The restaurant Telepan ensconced their Tribeca eatery with a range of textured white materials – tile, marble and whitewashed reclaimed white woods – bringing a rustic elegance to the upscale Farm-to-Table spot. Design by hOmE NYC.
These massive reclaimed Douglas Fir timbers (approx. dimensions 17 x 22 x 18′ — toddler, 35″ tall) were originally cut from the world’s second largest conifer tree (after Redwood). It’s lumber and timber began arriving from the Northwest in the early 20th c., as the Longleaf Pine forests of the Southern U.S. were reaching low levels. Today, reclaimed Doug Fir timbers yield beautiful framing members, wide plank flooring or in this instance, bound for exterior bench seating at the Highline in New York.
The Domino Sugar factory was primarily built with steel and brick, with a finishing coat of sugar and molasses over the eras. But demolition of the building still yielded a large volume of antique Longleaf Pine, used for the sturdy industrial decking.
Following the Civil War, New York City became the biggest provider of refined sugar to the U.S. and for a period, the Domino factory in Williamsburg was the largest sugar refinery in the world. After 150 yrs of service, it closed.
Most recently, it’s housed an unlikely sugar product, an epic sized sculpture by the artist Kara Walker. Her “Marvelous Sugar Mama” is a tribute to the individuals in distant lands that harvested sugar cane and a statement about the exploitations and sacrifices that trailed the 3 million pounds of sugar that were processed each day.
Tropical hardwoods spread throughout South Street Seaport were reclaimed by Sawkill Lumber in the first half of 2014. Ipe, Greenheart and Ekki – species from South American and West Africa are among the collection. The difficulty in sourcing woods sustainably from the world’s Rainforests add to the special quality of these ultra durable reclaimed hardwoods. Pictured above are the salvage process that stretched through the harsh winter and into the spring – and the first installation of the woods, remilled for a vanity and flooring of a Brooklyn bronwnstone.
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