EWEN embodies the organic union of considered design and heritage building techniques. Defined by its distinctive facade, the alliance of steel and reSAWN’s shou sugi ban charred wood paneling, Ewen’s expansive loft views frame the Williamsburg neighborhood it calls home.
A home is not made. It is born of its environs, reflecting and embracing the past as much as the future. Weaving a rich architectural heritage, time-honored craft, and informed by how we live today, Ewen stands as a marker.
Situated on Manhattan Avenue near Powers Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Ewen represents a collection of 10 exceptional residences which provide a unique interpretation on classic theme. Until about 1886, Manhattan Avenue, or rather the route it would eventually follow, was known as Ewen Street (for 19th Century city surveyor Daniel Ewen). The building façade is carefully composed relationship of sustainably sourced – Japanese inspired shou sugi ban charred wood cladding from reSAWN TIMBER co., a reclaimed cypress wood canopy, steel, and glass. The homes include a mix of 2 and 3 bedroom residences, duplex townhomes with private street-level parking and landscaped gardens, and detailed penthouses with innovative building systems, floor-to-ceiling glass windows, landscaped terraces and a rooftop lounge. In addition, residences feature direct elevator access, open kitchens and modern custom baths.
EWEN features reSAWN’s MOYASU and TAIYO charred cypress – more project install photos coming soon.
“Blackened wood is having a moment, be it lacquered, stained, charred, or oxidized, and we’re all in. For those who dare to join us, here’s a roundup of our favorite noirish pieces.”
Above: From charred wood experts reSAWN TIMBER co., the Credenza 1 has a case of shou sugi ban treated wood with pale maple doors and oxidized maple accents.
Fast Company and the WSJ announced recently that in New York and Portland, two high-rise buildings will be made not from concrete or metal, but a throwback material: good old trees.
From Fast Company:
It seems as if New York City is always under construction. Every few blocks, steel frames and concrete beams are formed and stacked high in the air. Now a new 10-story building in Manhattan is planned that will be unlike any other in the U.S: It will be made almost entirely from wood.
Wood is an old building material that has been getting a new life in taller buildings over the last five years. Around the world, 17 wood buildings have been built that are between seven and 15 stories tall—many of them in Europe. A record-high 35-story wood building is in the planning stages in Paris. But the U.S. has been slow to start exploring the recent advancements in wood materials that have made these taller buildings possible. None exist here today.
Last year, in partnership with the lumber industry, the Department of Agriculture announced a $3 million prize intended to spur tall wood building designs in the U.S.. Today, it announced two winners that will split the money: The 10-story residential condo, slated for Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, and a 12-story retail, office, and apartment building in Portland, Oregon.
In the interest of creating rural jobs, the Agriculture Department has a stake in promoting wood, as does the lumber industry—which has struggled since the housing crisis. But there can also be major sustainability benefits to wood as a building material.
“As cities are growing, they’re using a tremendous amount of concrete and steel, and the problem with that is that concrete and steel have a very big carbon footprint,” says Vishaan Chakrabarti, a principal at SHoP Architects, which designed the New York City project.
In manufacturing and construction, wood generally has a lower carbon footprint than other common building materials. In addition, the wood itself stores extra carbon (at least in the U.S., where logging regulations are strict and trees are farmed, not deforested). Diseased wood from western U.S. forests afflicted by pests such as mountain pine beetle can even be used in newer advanced wood products. Normally, this dead wood adds to the fire risk when left in place.
Building taller and larger structures with wood has only become possible in recent years, as the industry has created denser, engineered wood products that are more flexible, stronger, and more fire resistant than the traditional two-by-four beam. But current U.S. building codes generally allow wood buildings to be only six stories or less, and regulators and designers are naturally wary of trying new methods. The goal of the competition is to demonstrate it can be done.
“If you think about traveling through New York City and seeing buildings being made from steel and concrete, and all of the sudden in the middle of all this, you see this new wood constructed building—it’s going to catch your attention. I think it’s going to create some real interest,” says U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack.
The stylish, upscale, 10-story Forte apartment complex, near the water’s edge in Melbourne’s Victoria Harbour, was built in 2012 with cross laminated timber (CLT), whose structural strength is akin to that of concrete and steel
The Wood Innovation Design Centre (WIDC) serves as a gathering place for researchers, academics, design professionals and others interested in generating ideas for innovative uses of wood.
The Wood Innovation and Design Centre in downtown Prince George features inventive use of wood solutions to solve every-day design and construction challenges
The nine-storey building is the first of this height to construct load bearing walls and floor slabs as well as stair and lift cores entirely from timber.
66 Summer Street is a residential high-rise in the heart of Stamford, CT featuring reSAWN’s wide plank oak flooring. This engineered floor has a substantial 6mm wear layer and is 7″ wide to accentuate the unique character and grain pattern of white oak. The flooring was finished with a custom stain designed specifically for this project. Trinity Financial is the team behind the 15 story development, part of Stamford’s Park Square West redevelopment initiative.
With a unit mix of 112 one-bedrooms, 12 one-bedrooms with den, 68 two-bedrooms, 12 studios and five two-level townhomes, the new residential high-rise boasts solid construction quality with a concrete and steel frame building and exceptional amenities.The development offers breathtaking park, city and water views with spacious layouts.Only the highest quality materials were used – not only to ensure a building with integrity, but also to provide a quiet, more energy-efficient environment for residents.
Each floor alternates between light and dark interiors designed by SLADE architecture in NYC including reSAWN’s wide plank oak flooring.Residents can enjoy exclusive access to community amenity spaces including the Velocity fitness center, Solstice three season roof-deck, library lounge, club room and yoga studio.
from The Architect’s Newspaper … a unique shou sugi ban project in Basel, Switzerland by Seattle architects Olson Kundig
“Olson Kundig combines an ancient Japanese wood-burning technique with 21st-century interaction design at Design Miami/Basel Collectors’ Lounge.”
KEVIN SCOTT
Regional building styles and construction techniques weave a complex history that reflects the qualities, cultures, and narratives of a particular place. Olson Kundig took this to another level when designing Outpost Basel, an architectural pavilion at the Design Miami/Basel Collectors’ Lounge in Basel, Switzerland. The wood construction legacies of several places came together to create a bespoke structure that embodies the global design culture in which we operate.
The architects hail from Seattle, in the heart of the Pacific Northwest’s timber country. They brought their innovative mastery of materials to Western Europe, where companies like the Austrian goliath Holzindustrie Schweighofer are pushing wood technologies forward in new ways. The two worked together in Romania to construct the pavilion out of a wood-block system that is typically used as formwork for concrete and then discarded afterwards. Instead of using the wood bricks to create forms, the architects decided to give them a rich black hue by charring them with a traditional Japanese wood-burning preservation technique, completing the international mélange that makes the project unique.
In the center of the lounge is a large box made from the wood blocks provided by Schweighofer. The designers liked the raw look of the wood blocks, so they left them unfinished. The system is a series of wooden parts that are doweled together, “like IKEA furniture, avoiding screws,” Olson Kundig principal Tom Kundig told AN. The light walls were quickly and easily constructed to form the interior volume, and a series of openings were inserted by shifting the blocks according to the Fibonacci sequence. Once the walls were erected, they were charred using “Shou Sugi Ban,” an ancient technique that has been used in Japan to protect untreated wood against rot and insects. It was also an important way to fireproof villages before modernity. The process involves charring the wood and then using different oils to achieve different effects, while changing the intensity and exposure of the torch to produce varying levels of charring. At first, Schweighofer—who has been a leader in the wood processing industry for more than four centuries—was skeptical of the unusual idea, but eventually executed it at their Romanian compound, treating the blocks before they were shipped to Basel. They used a torch to apply the burn to the surface, and after two coats of torch, they put a sealing oil on the surface which sets the finish and reduces the risk of the black soot rubbing off (on people’s clothes in Basel). The inside of the space was left raw, so that it maintained the warmth of the wood blocks, while the burnt black exterior relates to the rest of the space in which the pavilion sits.
“FOR THE OUTPOST BASEL PAVILION, OLSON KUNDIG INTEGRATED SEVERAL WOOD CONSTRUCTION LEGACIES, FROM A WOODBLOCK SYSTEM IMPLEMENTED WITH AN AUSTRIAN COMPANY IN ROMANIA TO THE ANCIENT JAPANESE PROCESS KNOWN AS SHOU SUGI BAN.”
reSAWN applies the Japanese charring technique of shou sugi ban to cypress, black walnut, red oak, or reclaimed hemlock, then finishes the woods with colorful oil for an even more striking aesthetic. Recently, the manufacturer added 18 new colors to this line ranging from neutrals to heavily saturated hues such as pink and cyan. All but two of the new colors are suitable for both interior and exterior cladding in commercial and residential settings. Different levels of black finish are also offered and result in dramatic backdrops.
KURO shou sugi ban exterior and interior wood siding
Recently installed at corporate headquarters for confidential client, this beautiful conference table by RSTco. features North American White Oak bookmatched slabs with live edge and matte conversion varnish finish. Bookmatching is the practice of matching two wood slabs so that adjoining surfaces mirror each other, giving the impression of an opened book.
All RSTco. furniture is custom built and finished in our woodshop from locally sourced and sustainably harvested wood species. we prefer and specialize in solid wood construction as well as using traditionally joinery wherever possible. we offer a variety of finishes that are both durable and complimentary to the wood. other media in addition to wood are often incorporated into designs such as steel.
Visit our FURNITURE page for inspiration and then contact us to discuss your project needs.
reSAWN is pleased to announce that our CHARRED collection of shou sugi ban woods are now available treated to a Class A Fire Rating for Interior Applications. Contact us to learn more about specifying CHARRED wood for exterior siding, interior wall cladding and custom furniture.
IRUKA :: one of the newest designs from reSAWN, Iruka features shou sugi ban charred cypress finished with a metallic silver
The new headquarters build out for beverage technology company Keurig Green Mountain exemplifies how smart design can foster communal growth in a corporate setting. Visnick & Caulfield’s final 430,000-square-foot design for the second phase of the multi-phase build out focuses greatly on reinforcing corporate brand, culture and community.
STOUT antique reclaimed hickory from the enCORE collection by reSAWN TIMBER co. was used as wall cladding and as a main feature wall. Hickory is known for its strength and durability as well as the strong contrast between lighter sapwood and darker heartwood. Reclaimed Hickory displays rich color tones, irregular grain patterns and plenty of character marks including mineral staining, color changes, weathering, checking, nail holes, knots and sometimes wormholes. For Keurig, the wood was treated by reSAWN to achieve a Class A Fire Rating and prefinished with hardwax oil.
A major focus of design was on connectivity, encouraging interaction amongst employees distributed across six floors and two buildings. To enhance this, each floor within the buildings features a lounge space at the core to allow for vertical adjacencies and movement. Moreover, each lounge has a unique scheme that relates to Keurig Green Mountain’s business, ranging from a soda shop to a coffee bar with customized units to hold the numerous varieties of beverage products.
The finished 6-floor main building, which is LEED Gold Certified, also features highly designed amenities including two conference centers, an executive floor, a fitness center and a 10,000-square-foot cafeteria and multifunction space. The lighting design houses all LED light fixtures with daylight harvesting features. To connect the first phase project, a 100,000-square-foot R&D lab area including a 50,000-square-foot high bay facility and 50,000-square-foot office space that was LEED Silver certified, the team designed a branded skybridge linking the two buildings together.
shou sugi ban wall cladding + black walnut conference table
PINKU is one of the newest designs in the CHARRED collection from reSAWN TIMBER co. To create the CHARRED colors, reSAWN starts with cypress wood in either #2 common grade or select grade. TThe wood is carefully charred, misted with water, cooled, brushed to remove dust and loose debris, and then stained/sealed to create the unique designs you will find in the CHARRED collection. The top coat sealer is applied prior to shipping (for exterior applications, we recommend sealing the face & back). The unique shou sugi ban burning process is what accentuates the wood grain and allows us to create the CHARRED COLORS – rather than a simple stained piece of wood, you get a textured and varied look with black accents from the charring. To maintain a newer aesthetic of the oil finished COLORS, the oil should be reapplied every 2-4 years. However, as weathering, exposure conditions, altitude, and applications can vary, maintenance may be needed sooner and should be performed when visually necessary, regardless of time frame. Alternatively, reSAWN offers two fully CHARRED designs called HAI and MOYASU which require less maintenance long term as there is no wood grain exposed under the top coat due to the full char. Most of the CHARRED COLORS are finished with an exterior grade oil that protects the wood against the elements – JINZU and MIDORI are finished with an interior only oil and should not be specified for exterior applications.
PINKU is featured here along with RSToc. CONFERENCE TABLE 3 in north american black walnut. RSTco. was created to distinguish our increasing work with custom millwork and furniture. The founders and craftsmen of RSTco. have been creating furniture pieces for private customers for 30+ years and reSAWN has grown to a national presence with sales reps and projects around the USA and abroad. Visit our Furniture page for more info or contact us to discuss your project needs.
