RIVIAN
VENICE, 2021
PROJECT
Our friends at Studio 111 and RDC Collaborative understood their client’s ethos and enlisted ACL to consult on durable exterior materials to provide for their first ever community-hub in Venice, CA. The outdoor courtyard acts as a gathering space for community events and gardening classes. It’s adorned with magnificently large timber benches, slab benches, play platforms, balance beams and stools all from our beloved Aleppo Pine, truly a wooden wonderland.
Grab a coffee on Abbot Kinney Blvd and take a short stroll to this historic site (Ray Bradbury wrote The Martian Chronicles here) and be inspired as Rivian takes electrifying automobiles to the next level; designing high range, all-wheel drive trucks & SUV’s allowing us to explore our natural world responsibly.
PROJECT SERVICES
Project Management
Fabrication
Installation
Chain of Custody
Custom Milling
Urban Lumber Consultancy
Concept Development
Design Development
Quarterly Maintenance Service Contract
PRODUCTS
Large timber benches (Aleppo Pine)
Slab Benches (Aleppo Pine)
Log Stools (Aleppo Pine)
Balance beam (Aleppo Pine)
Signage Posts (Aleppo Pine)
Play platform (Aleppo Pine)
Abbot Kinney custom display table (Sugar Gum Eucalyptus)
Timber stools for display table (American Elm)
SPECIES & SOURCE
Sugar Gum Eucalyptus, Santa Monica planted by Abbot Kinney
Aleppo Pine, Studio City, Los Angeles Country Club, North Hollywood, Altadena
Project Team
Rivian, project owner
Studio 111, landscape architect
RDC Collaborative, architect
Swinerton, general contractor
Artcrafters, millworks contractor
ALEPPO PINE
Rooted in the Mediterranean and Northern Africa, Aleppo Pine is known for its fine lumber, helping to build the first known civilizations. It was brought to the US in the late 1600’s as an ornamental tree. However, the Ancient Greeks held the tree to higher regard, using it for home and shipbuilding.. even ceremonially sacrificing an Aleppo pine to the god Attis. While we may not hold the tree in exactly the same fervor, we see the excellent outdoor applications of this wood. A resinous, hard pine, Aleppo has great resistance to pests and decay. Planter beds, fencing, timber and log benches/stools, and exterior sculptural pieces will stand the test of time. Aleppo’s sweeping resin swirls will capture your eye but are muted enough to prove elegant.
SUGAR GUM EUCALYPTUS
Sugar Gum, another Aussie native, was planted in the late 1800’s around Southern California and this tree in particular was part of Abbot Kinney’s attempt to Eucalyptize LA. Developer, conservationist, and experimental forester, Kinney was never short on big ideas of how to “green” (verb) LA while incidentally creating copious amounts of timber for the nation’s encroaching timber famine. Kinney was a bigger proponent of Sugar Gum as opposed to the highly touted (rocket-growing) Blue Gum.
As the story unfolds, the silviculture, forestry, harvest, and wood seasoning of Eucalyptus in the US was too novice and wood yields were of terrible quality. Ultimately, the process was abandoned, leaving hundreds of thousands of Eucalyptus standing along the entire California coast and perhaps more famously, becoming an invasive tree. Fortunately, we’ve been able to honor many of these lovely Euclid’s with innovation drying techniques and understanding application sensitivity.
