A small row of four trees outside the west-facing entrance of Siebel Center for Design (SCD) tell a little-known story from long ago. Now, visitors to SCD will have a new way to recognize the history and purpose of the trees, planted there by the third President of the University of Illinois, Thomas Jonathan Burrill.
A podium, of lumber from the Austrian pine which fell most recently from that row, now sits in the SCD public space for speakers and events.
Nicholas Puddicombe, senior associate director of operations & experience at SCD, is proud to have procured this needed hardware, and particularly to spotlight history and school pride. F&S mill foreperson Andy Burnett played an important role in securing the lumber years ago, along with the fabrication coordinator from the School of Architecture, Lowell Miller, who helped do the original milling on the tree itself.
History, Recent and Past
In 2018, the F&S Grounds team contacted Miller, who had started a program in Architecture called Root to Roof, which aims to redirect urban and campus trees into useable materials for construction and furniture purposes. So, Miller milled up one of the logs with help from the Student Sustainability Committee.
“This work led to a new proposal to set up a campus tree milling program to vertically integrate our beloved campus trees into our supply chain rather than letting them go back into the carbon cycle as mulch or firewood,” Miller said. “This joint effort will produce more useable materials for future campus projects for the foreseeable future.”
Ausie Pine Siebel Design
Burnett made technical drawings to propose how the podium would look and operate.
Q&A with SCD’s Nicholas Puddicombe
What’s it for, why use F&S?
This podium will be a new addition to our Gallery, our largest gathering and event space in the building, to provide a permanent, accessible, and beautiful piece that can support our presenters’ needs during events. The remaining trees will be visible directly behind it through our front windows. We chose to use the mill shop in F&S because I knew they did good work from what I have seen on campus and from the work they did on our custom cabinetry. Also, Andy Burnett from the mill shop reached out a couple years ago to let us know the lumber from this Austrian pine had made its way to the shop and asked what we would like to make with it. I was aware of the trees’ significance as part of early research in agriculture and using trees to help protect crop fields, which I learned during the construction process. Since learning about them, I have found others down Fourth Street that would have been on the same row back when this part of campus was still a field.
Have you seen the mill’s previous work, or have you used them to make things in the past?
Yes, I have seen their work at other locations on campus, and we had them do the custom cabinetry in our prep kitchen, which now houses our lost and found items. They were able to make cabinets in custom colors, so we picked a bright pink/purple which helped fit the fun and creative vibe of SCD.
Can you speak about what that process was like, what it was like working with F&S and how the mill shop has built your trust?
The process was easy and fun to work on, which started with a meeting between Andy, myself, and some others from the SCD team to collect ideas for what we could build. A podium stood out early on as something we needed, a cool focal point for the wood, and a great place to connect the history of the tree with the view outside. Once we selected a podium and discussed logistics like making it height adjustable, adding cable runs for wires and AV, and where it would be placed, the mill shop team drew up some options. I selected a look that maintained the raw edge and natural wood, and submitted the official request to have it made. Within a couple weeks of submitting the ticket, they already had it ready to go and we started to make plans for it to be delivered. The mill shop has been very responsive and creates high-quality original pieces, so I trust their work a lot. Working with them was great, and has inspired me to contact them for other work when we need custom pieces. Our initial furniture that came with the building construction is okay, but I know the mill shop can create better pieces so I will be working with them when we need to replace them.
