Honorable Mentions 2007

Michael Singer Fine Woodworking
Felton, CA
www.msfinewoodworking.com

Category: Residential Furniture, Freestanding

Project: DVD Cabinet

Materials: This piece is constructed of solid mahogany, hard maple and wenge. The legs are cast aluminum. Inlays on the upper doors are copper, maple and abalone shell.

Construction: The sides and pullout fronts of the lower section are made from shape-matched solid stock, which ensures that the integrity of the pattern will survive heavy use over time. The upper carcasses are solid mahogany with mahogany doors that pivot on shop-milled
aluminum pins. The crown mouldings around the tops of the upper section are made of laminations of pre-shaped stock. Each layer was shaped using a jig and template-following router, then laminated and cut to size and mitered. To inlay the circles of copper in the upper doors, teeth were filed into a length of copper pipe in order to mill mortises perfectly matched to thin sections of pipe inlay material.

Project Notes: The design centers around a continuous wave that stretches across the sides and front of the lower part and is matched in the waveform crown moulding around the tops of the upper units.

Tempo Carpentry & Design Inc.
San Juan Capistrano, CA
www.tempocarpentry.com

Category: Residential Furniture, Built-In

Project: Louis XV Hand-Carved Fire Mantle

Materials: This piece is in rare solid English walnut. One of the project’s challenges was to find this uncommon species; it is usually used for gunstock and therefore harvested as thin branches rather than thick planks.

Construction: Hand-drawn images were scanned and transformed digitally to produce mockups and rough blanks on a CNC router. The craftsmen selected their glue-ups in order to maximize the premium wood grain of the walnut. The biggest challenge was to integrate the legs and both sides of the apron to conceal the joints, to give the appearance of a single-piece mantle. The company’s hand carver spent months hand sculpting each section.

Project Notes: The company spent weeks in the study and design of genuine Louis XV aesthetic, characterized by tasteful and realistic high relief in carving. The design, featuring contoured and flowing floral arrangements, musical instruments and period French imagery, is historically accurate and also reflects the client’s family, which was steeped in the classical music tradition.

Photo by JW Creative Group

Thomas Starbuck Stockton
Montgomery Creek, CA
www.starbuckfurniture.net

Category: Residential Furniture, Freestanding

Project: Federal-Style Buffet

Materials: This piece features Honduran mahogany and ebony lumber, and Honduran mahogany and African mahogany veneers. The veneer species were chosen because the client wanted a figure that was beautiful, but not overpowering.

Construction: The various custom panels used in this piece were laid up and pressed on a vacuum press, using a shop-made bending form for the curved door and drawer fronts. The bulk of the carcass is joined with mortise-and-tenon joints or biscuits. The drawer joinery is hand-cut dovetails.

Project Notes: This project’s most outstanding characteristic is the overall quality of the workmanship.

Photo by Steven Kirkish

Blake Wilson Woodworks
New Port Richey, FL
www.bwilsonwoodwork.tripod.com

Category: Residential Furniture, Built-in

Project: Harbor Watch Library
Materials: This project combined cherry with ropey cherry and mappa burl veneers.

Construction: For the window jamb and casing for an existing Paladian window, the shop used two layers of 3/8-inch bending plywood, glued and clamped to a jig. It applied 10-foot cherry wood on wood veneer, bonded with a high solids contact adhesive. The cherry casing was attached to the jamb with pocket screws. The cases were a three-tier design, starting with 32-inch bases with a perpendicular offset desk 30 inches high, top with rectangle and radius on one corner, with mappa burl recessed panels and 5-1/2-inch base trim. The center tier was 60-inch cases; the fluted columns were attached with pocket screws in a technique similar to the window. On the top tier of 24-inch cabinets, the cope-and-stick arched frames were done off radius jigs. To tie both walls of cabinetry to the window, the company used 135-degree corners to soften the transition.

Project Notes: The challenge was that the room was only 13 feet wide, 14 feet deep, with a cathedral peak of 13-1/2 feet. The customer wanted to take advantage of the Gulf front view and wanted wall-to-wall casework — it was a challenge to do that and not overwhelm the space. Also, the room was out of square more than two inches, and the floor had a
1-inch drop in 14 feet, which made the install “interesting.”

Hubel Handcrafted Interiors Inc.
Colorado Springs, CO
www.hubelhi.com

Category: Architectural Millwork

Project: Residential Mission-Style Millwork and Cabinetry, including beams, columns, paneling, mantles and a vanity for the home’s entryway. The project encompassed the dining room, library, bathroom and great room.

Materials: This project features quartersawn mahogany plywood and solids. Accent pieces include ebonized ash for strapping and caps and solid ebony for all pegs and inlays. The project consumed nearly 90 sheets of plywood and 400 board feet of solid stock.

Construction: Tapered columns join the entry, dining room, great room and kitchen areas and are tied together with the ceiling beam work in the entryway, which is the main focal point. Custom cabinets make for a half wall and serve as the base of the columns. There are five fireplace mantles in solid quartersawn mahogany, featuring box joints at the corners and pegged with ebony. All doors are constructed with traditional mortise-and-tenon joinery. The columns are rabbeted at all four corners and trimmed with solid mahogany corner moulding. The paneling in the oval dining room is mahogany plywood, sanded to a thickness that allows it to bend easily to the contour of the wall.

Project Notes: This project was accomplished with a good supply of hand tools, as well as a table saw, widebelt sander and bandsaw.

Heartwood Custom Woodworks Inc.
Eagle, CO
www.heartwood1.com

Category: Kitchen/Bath Cabinets

Project: Mountain Contemporary Kitchen

Materials: Materials included FAS-grade cherry, graded two additional times, solids and veneer; and wenge solids.

Construction: The homeowner wanted an exceptional quality of workmanship, so the cabinetry was done according to Architectural Woodwork Institute premium-grade standards. Special touches were used to create the “Mountain Contemporary” style; for example, to integrate mountain style into the flooring, subtle hand-scraping and easing of the edges was applied to give it a slight rustic appeal. Cabinetry was built using the 32mm system. Most of the finishing was done in-house. Finishes were all natural, without the use of stains. Wood was hand-oiled and conversion varnish was applied using an air-assisted airless sprayer.

Project Notes: The company provided the whole house interior woodwork package for this single-family residence. It included manufacture and finishing of all interior doors, architectural millwork, wood flooring, cabinetry and built-ins, wood stairs and handrails, as well as installation of the cabinetry and built-ins. The company also produced false beam wraps for exterior structural members.

Hazen Designs
Knoxville, TN
www.hayzen.com

Category: Residential Furniture, Freestanding

Project: Round Pedestal Table

Materials: The pedestal is poplar, and the base and top are MDF, covered with maple veneer; the banding and edging are mahogany.

Construction: The pedestal has six sides and is 32 inches high. The top is 40 inches in diameter. The blue, green and orange veneer was dyed prior to being cut into the various shapes. The table was finished using lacquer to be long-lasting and wear-resistant.

Project Notes: The design concept for this table was based on a style often used for the Imperial Russian Czar’s art work. It also has elements seen in South American and African art.

Wilkie Sanderson
Sauk Rapids, MN
www.wilkiesanderson.com

Category: Architectural Millwork

Project: Millwork for St. Joseph Church Parish

Materials: This project featured rift-sliced red oak, slip-matched veneers and hardwoods.

Construction: The company worked with the general contractor on the layout of the circular windows and soffit, providing templates for the wall framing and circular framing for the soffit.

Project Notes: The cone-shaped fixture above the altar required close coordination with the GC and metal fabricators to make sure the wood pieces fit with the metal pieces. It also required careful layout of the panels to ensure that the grain pattern met specifications. The large pivot doors and canopy at the entrance to the space were other unique aspects of this project.

Bailey and Son Woodworking
Thonotosassa, FL
www.baileyandson.com

Category: Architectural Millwork

Project: Residential Paneled Library with Coffered Ceiling

Materials: Maple hardwood and veneer were used for all surfaces.

Construction: The ceiling was a challenge, as the framing was well done, but not perfectly square or straight. So the shop built and installed 12 slightly different coffered panels. Bookcases followed, then 4/4 maple stiles and rails for the wall panels, which were biscuited together in wall-size sections to keep joints flat and tight, shimmed plumb and square. Another challenge was the 270-degree bead that went inside the arches and down the sides of the bookcase openings. The shop ran the small beaded moulding flat on a router table for the first 180 degrees of round and then ran them again on a large vertical fence to finish out the remaining 90 degrees of undercut. Each radius required a different set of jigs to track through the router cut.

Project Notes: The carved head at the top of the large radius window draws the most comments. Nicknamed “Fred,” he became a bone of contention between the wife (who disliked him) and the husband. The husband’s wishes prevailed, and Fred stayed in place.

Goulding & Wood Inc.
Indianapolis, IN
www.gouldingandwood.com

Category: Specialty Products

Project: Pipe Organ at Ball State University, Muncie, IN

Materials: The organ structure uses yellow pine laminated beams and poplar bearers/
horizontal supports. Wind chest mechanics of the musical instrument are oak and sugar pine with actuators of phenolic resin. The organ includes display pipes of flamed copper, hard white maple and lacquered zinc; internal pipes are zinc, lead/tin alloys, poplar and spruce. The decorative facade casework is hard white maple. The console also is hard white maple and includes a maple burl music rack.

Construction: Each part was custom-built by hand with predominant use of hand tools. All wooden components were built from rough-cut lumber that was planed and dimensioned in the shop.

Project Notes: This project entailed a lengthy design process before shop activity in which all engineering and layout of internal components was established within extremely tight physical parameters and the creative/architectural design of the facade and console. Shop construction included fabrication of all parts, regulating of all pipework, shop assembly of all parts for testing, disassembly for transportation to the site, and on-site construction, installation and regulation. Because of the architectural significance of the room, the console was designed in such a way that it incorporates and highlights significant architectural vocabulary at use in the room.

Beach Cabinets LLC
Melbourne, FL
www.beachcabinets.net

Category: Kitchen/Bath Cabinets

Project: Residential Kitchen
Materials: Quartersawn cherry, purpleheart plywood and veneers were used in this kitchen, as well as bending MDF.

Construction: The cabinetry is frameless and all casework is 3/4-inch construction. Veneer was vacuum-pressed onto a combination plywood for the doors. Concave/convex island partitions were veneered as one matched piece with a doubled bullnose on the longest panel.

Project Notes: The wrapped banding of cherry and purpleheart with integrated light boxes was the most unusual aspect of this project. It was a challenge to float the wrapped light box for the 1-1/4-inch variations at the ceiling.


Jefferson Millwork & Design
Sterling, VA
www.jeffersonmillwork.com

Category: Architectural Millwork

Project: E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse, Bridges and Central Staircase

Materials: The bridges are solid white maple. The central staircase consists of radiused quartered white maple veneer panels with a radiused handrail.

Construction: The most unusual problem that had to be overcome was the three-layer radius construction of the panels, which had to be formed to match the framing on the project site. The radius handrail also had to be formed to match the panels on-site.

Project Notes: This project was unique because of the six-story radiused stairwell wrapped with maple veneer panels.

Bernhard Woodwork Ltd.
Northbrook, IL
www.bernhardwoodwork.com

Category: Architectural Millwork

Project: Private Residence in Chicago, IL

Materials: The company provided 25,000 linear feet of 3/4-inch by 1-1/2-inch plain sliced hickory tongue-and-groove that was incorporated in all elevations of wall planking, including doors and within cabinetry that aligned with floor treads and risers, ceiling heights, corners and openings throughout the space. Also provided and installed were oversized slab doors, hickory veneer bedroom furniture, wall shelving with concealed in-wall brackets, bathroom vanities, medicine cabinets and a stainless steel hood surround for the kitchen.

Construction: Faces of doors and drawer fronts had railroad planking to align in joinery throughout
all ends and corners, maintaining fingerjoint details at the outside. Hickory veneer leafs were booked, balanced and center-matched for various cabinet and millwork fabrication. The company worked closely with the architect and general contractor to resolve alignment issues at every butting surface that connected to cabinetry, ceiling and outside and inside corners at all door and drawer locations.

Project Notes: Wall and ceiling planking was machined at the same time as the flooring in order to maintain tight tolerances and alignments. Flooring consisted of 65,000 linear feet. Wall planking at exposed ends had stopped tongue-and-groove to give the appearance of full-width plank. All outside corners were fingerjointed (lap jointed) upwards and pin-wheeled (around) at all corners where applicable.

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