2012 International Wood Magazine and Buyer's Guide

Features

From the Forest

IWPA President Warren Spitz welcomes readers to the 9th edition of International Wood magazine, alongside a reference list of imported wood species featured throughout the issue.

By Warren Spitz

Features

Man Caves

An introduction to the modern man cave—from mahogany wet bars to jatoba and wenge flooring—tracing its origins back to Victorian-era gentlemen's smoking rooms.

Features

The Man Cave

A look at the history and modern appeal of the 'man cave,' from velvet smoking rooms to MTV Cribs-inspired mantuaries, featuring a Manhattan penthouse with wenge flooring.

Features

Wenge: A Classic, Chic Look for Manhattan Penthouse

A Manhattan penthouse project uses wenge flooring for its classic, chic look, exceptional hardness (Janka 1630), and distinctive color range. Sidebar covers humidors made of bocote and Spanish cedar.

Features

Man Caves and Exotic Woods

Continuation of a feature on man caves, covering exotic woods used in custom billiard cues (cocobolo, bocote, ebony, wenge) and debating whether the 'man cave' trend has run its course.

Features

The Man Cave Lives On

A feature on the enduring popularity of the man cave, paired with a sidebar on the exotic hardwoods—mahogany, rosewood, ebony and spruce—used in fine acoustic guitars.

Features

Going Global

High-end architectural applications benefit from global sourcing of wood species like meranti, okoume, and primavera, as U.S. manufacturers like Eggers Industries incorporate imported veneers into custom plywood products.

Features

Exotic Veneers and Balanced Construction in High-End Plywood Design

Balanced plywood construction pairs decorative faces with similar-property backs like okoume, while exotic veneers such as jatoba, sapele, paldao and Karelian birch grow in popularity for high-end architectural work.

Features

Exotic Veneers in Custom Cabinetry and Woodwork

Designers Michael Borrelli and Tom Oneto describe their use of exotic veneers such as paldao, pao ferro, figured eucalyptus, sapele, and figured anegre in high-end custom cabinetry and corporate woodwork.

Features

Plywood Through the Millennia

A brief history of plywood from ancient Egypt and China through the rotary lathe invention, WWII wartime production, and its modern use as an indispensable building material.

Features

Figured Anegre and Recomposed Veneers Drive Design Trends

Figured anegre and recomposed veneers are gaining market share as designers mix light and dark woods—like rift white oak with wenge—for striking contemporary contrasts.

Features

Blue Jay the Green Way

A Hollywood Hills residence known as Blue Jay Way blends indoor-outdoor living with Mexican-inspired design, featuring durable Brazilian ipé wood for its ceilings and decks.

Features

Blue Jay Residence: Sustainable Luxury by Lori Dennis

Celebrity interior designer Lori Dennis's Blue Jay residence blends sustainability and luxury, featuring Ipé ceilings and decks, reclaimed white oak, zebrawood veneer, and FSC-certified custom furnishings in a seamless indoor-outdoor home.

Features

Passionate about Purpleheart

Architect Ted Touloukian chose South American purpleheart for the pergolas and pavilion at Greensboro's Center City Park, drawn by its amethyst hue, durability, and low maintenance compared with ipé.

Features

Center City Park: A Purpleheart Pavilion in Greensboro

Feature on Greensboro's Center City Park, whose pavilion and pergolas are clad in long-length purpleheart lumber detailed to evoke the city's textile-weaving heritage.

Features

It's About Life, It's About Time

Exotic wood flooring and decking choices reflect lifestyle, authenticity and sustainability, with trends toward handscraped floors, indoor-outdoor living, and innovative use of tropical species for walls and ceilings.

Features

Jatoba and Beech from Floor to Door

Architect Robert Gurney pairs jatoba flooring with beech cabinetry in the 2,000-sq-ft Harkavy House in Potomac, Maryland, creating a minimal palette that blends with the wooded landscape.

Features

Curve Appeal

The Shore Vista Boat Dock on Lake Austin features a curved two-story oval design with waterfall and boat mooring, built with durable massaranduba (Brazilian redwood) by Bercy Chen Studio LP.

Features

Massaranduba: A Beautiful, Appealing Wood

Architect Dan Loe describes working with massaranduba for the Shore Vista project, praising its durability, color, and warmth while cautioning that the dense, unforgiving wood requires precise planning.

Features

Ipé Renews an Urban Heritage

The story of how ipé decking was used to complete Erie Street Plaza, the final link in Milwaukee's three-mile RiverWalk revitalization project in the historic Third Ward.

Features

Ipé Walkway Revitalizes Erie Street Plaza

Stoss Landscape Urbanism's Scott Reid explains why ipé was chosen for the walkway that ties together Milwaukee's revitalized Erie Street Plaza — for its durability, sustainability, span capacity, and beautiful weathering.

Features

Spectacular Species

An introduction to a feature on spectacular exotic species including ipé, iroko, cumaru, jatoba, garapa, and teak, highlighting their growing use in flooring and decking applications.

Features

Spectacular Species

Profiles of two tropical species: jatoba flooring at Venice's Marco Polo airport, and FSC-certified cumaru used for boardwalks at the LEED Platinum Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation campus.

Features

Spectacular Species

A showcase of three spectacular tropical species used in residential architecture: iroko decking, garapa decking with ipé handrails, and reclaimed teak interiors.

Features

A Tapestry of Exotics

Chicago's Flux Studios produces Fortis Arbor wood mosaics, hand-crafted from teak, rosewood and bamboo for walls, backsplashes, countertops and feature walls.

Features

Wood Mosaics: Turning Scraps into Functional Art

Flux Studios' Darrin Hallowell describes how reclaimed teak, rosewood and bamboo scraps are transformed into Fortis Arbor wood mosaic tiles, using a custom grout system that accommodates wood movement.

Features

Cumaru: A Tennessee Country Music Star

The historic Ryman Auditorium in Tennessee replaced its 60-year-old oak stage floor with FSC-certified cumaru, a durable South American hardwood sourced by Robinson Lumber Company, while preserving a section of the original oak as a tribute.

Features

The Art of Technology

An overview of innovations in engineered hardwood flooring, highlighting how multi-ply construction enables exotic wood floors to thrive in varied environments while offering unlimited design versatility.

Features

Straight Lines, Stunning Beauty

Designer Sandy Nygaard selected African doussie hardwood flooring for the Touchstone Project, a contemporary West Coast home on Vancouver Island, to match the natural surroundings with linear-grained, reflective beauty.

Features

Well-Versed in Baltic Birch

Chicago's new Poetry Foundation Building, designed by John Ronan Architects, uses zinc, glass, and Baltic birch plywood to create a layered spatial narrative inspired by poetry itself.

Features

A Pillar of Verse, Lyrical Integrity

Architect John Ronan used Baltic birch plywood as the sole wood throughout Chicago's 22,000 sq ft Poetry Building, pairing its humble, amber-hued grain with glass and concrete to evoke the simplicity of verse.

Features

Bringing Bali to LA

Designers Christopher Mercier and Douglas Pierson of (fer) studio used red balau and ancient teak to bring Balinese architectural themes into a contemporary West Hollywood residence.

Features

Red Balau Envelops California Residence

A California home envelops its exterior and interior in red balau and century-old teak, featuring wide-width boards, dramatic cantilevered floating stairs, and compatible woods like walnut.

Features

Wood: Another Look

A feature on W-Eye Frames, wooden eyeglass frames designed by Doriano Mattellone and Matteo Ragni using exotic woods like wenge, ebony, sapele and zebrawood.

Features

The McKinley House Stairs

Architect David Hertz used more than 1,600 sustainably harvested ipé boards to build a striking open staircase in his McKinley House in Venice Beach, blending green design with indoor-outdoor living.

Features

The Cloud, Queen's Wharf

The Cloud at Auckland's Queen's Wharf, built for the 2011 Rugby World Cup, features meranti plywood cladding on eight large half-moon arches lining its curvy steel frame structure.

Features

Blues Box Armoire

Craftsman Louis Fry's Blues Box Armoire, inspired by Art Deco jukeboxes, showcases bubinga, wenge and curly maple in a custom one-of-a-kind piece built to last 200 years.

Features

Canoe

Artisan Sue Spray crafts a museum-quality canoe from book-matched sapele, with curly maple, bloodwood and ebony accents — a hand-built piece weighing under 80 pounds.

Features

Akira Dining Chairs

Seattle woodworker Hank Holzer crafts the striking Akira Dining Chairs from jatoba and wenge, combining dense tropical hardwoods with straight-grained splines to create chairs that seem to rock, soothe and levitate the user.

Features

Branding: The In-Store Experience

An exploration of how progressive retailers like Safeway use design, color, texture and sensory elements to create in-store environments that reinforce brand identity and engage customers.

Features

Living the Lifestyle

Retailers like Safeway are investing in wood fixtures to create warm, inviting store environments. East Bay Fixture Company chose European beech and sapele for Safeway's Lifestyle prototype remodel.

Features

Ayous Sparkles at CityCenter

Safeway's Lifestyle pharmacy storefronts use European beech and sapele, while Louis Vuitton's new Las Vegas store at Crystals features ayous wood panel fixtures beneath a 31-foot titanium chandelier.

Features

Luxury Retailers Turn to Imported Woods for Store Design

Luxury retailers like Louis Vuitton are using ayous (obeche) veneer in flagship store designs, driving demand for imported woods as in-store experience becomes central to luxury retail.

Features

Trends Influencing Architecture and Interior Design

A look at how architects and interior designers collaborate to create harmonious spaces, featuring insights from award-winning interior designer Lori Dennis on the enduring value of wood in design.

Features

Architect Robert Gurney, FAIA

Designer Lori Dennis discusses her favorite woods — reclaimed French oak, ipé, rosewood, and anegre — followed by an introduction to award-winning architect Robert Gurney, FAIA.

Features

Q&A with Robert Gurney

Architect Robert Gurney discusses his most-specified woods—mahogany, Brazilian cherry, Brazilian walnut and wenge—the rise of certified sustainable species, material selection, and how IWPA and other associations can better serve designers and the public.

Features

Winning with Wood

The IWPA Awards Program recognizes innovation and environmental stewardship in the wood industry, honoring Interwood Forest Products, Columbia Forest Products, and UCS Forest Group for their sustainable Red Grandis initiative with Uruguayan forestry company Urufor.

Features

Innovative Technology

Columbia Forest Products won the IWPA Innovative Excellence Award for PureBond®, a soy-based resin technology that replaces urea-formaldehyde in decorative hardwood plywood.

Features

Aesthetic Design

Interwood Forest Products supplied fine veneers—including wenge, bubinga, Santos rosewood and figured maple—for the interiors of Dubai's Burj Khalifa, earning the IWPA 2012 Aesthetic Excellence Award.