Some Assembly Required

Purchased another building this week... (some assembly required).

Almost 90% of this material was recycled in some way, the timbers destined for my studio.

As the story goes… I was walking through a friend’s warehouse when I came across this large bundle of reclaimed building timbers.  These were beautiful, center cut, long-leaf pine and some cypress from the late 1800s.  Always in the market, I asked where he had found them?  Then things got interesting… really interesting.

Most of these timbers are at least 16"x16" with some up to 24" (all 16 foot sections)

As it turns out, demolition had already begun on the sprawling Armour Meat Packing Facility in the historic Stockyards of Ft. Worth.  Built in the late 1800s and opened in 1903, this facility was key to the growth of the cattle industry and the ensuing culture of Ft. Worth which remains today.  After some quick research, I found an article (excerpt below) in the Star Telegram which best describes the project:

From the Star Telegram: “More than 90 percent of the buildings, including bricks, cypress timber, steel and concrete, is expected to be recycled, Britton said.  Three metal buildings, a brick building, storage tanks and other small structures have already been removed from the site. The remaining structures will take about four months to demolish.  "There are some wood beams in there that will blow you away. Some of that wood will be worth a bucketful of money," Brinkley said.” (read more here)

Historic building?  Lots of great timber?  90% recycled demolition?  I jumped at the opportunity!  A few days later I was at the demo site watching the timber being stacked into bundles.

As I began to inventory and decide what I could use, I remembered the experience I had last year when I tried to buy an antique box car (see earlier post).  Enough said, I bought the whole lot.  50,000 board feet of reclaimed timber.  Enough to build over 400 pieces of beam-inspired furniture and architecturals.
It’s beautiful stuff.  I am very excited to have landed it. Take a look at these pictures…

This photograph gives you an idea of just how much 50,000 board feet adds up to...

The historical marker for the site

JBL loading the largest sections onto one of the trucks for transport to Dallas

Some of the original patina (tested negative for lead)

First of 4 tractor trailers moving 50,000 board feet of reclaimed timbers

I would be remiss not to mention that when doing research on the building site, I came across some beautiful low-light photo work by a local photographer named Noel Kerns. His photographs are of the Swift side of the Swift/Armour industrial site.  I encourage anyone to visit his website to see these under "Industrial Decay" as well as the other photographs he has taken. Beautiful stuff!

Some of Noel Kerns work on the Swift side of the site