As
an architect, most of my experiences are heavily rooted on learning
from direct experience, a philosophy of education I embraced since
joining Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin more than sixteen years ago. At
Taliesin I learned about architecture through building, using my own
hands, from mixing concrete for a desert masonry wall to mimicking
processes in nature as sources for design. The experience revealed the
learning process as a redefining moment about the built environment
particularly when we had to rebuild a wall several times due to mishaps.
A few weeks ago I came full circle with this philosophy when I participated in Thos. Moser’s Maine Event
as one of eight architects and interior designers chosen to experience a
condensed Customer-In-Residence Program. Thos. Moser, a company known
for fine wood furniture pieces and craftsman of chairs for five living US Presidents
and the Pope, teamed me up with their master craftsman, Teak, like the
wood, to build a designer table worthy of being an heirloom.
Building
the Wing Hall Table started with selecting lumber from the stacks at
Rough Mill. It was like a spectacle of spiritual specification when I
handpicked the cherry lumber with the right grain pattern that would
breathe life into the table. The two parallel cathedral grain patterns
meeting at the middle of the plank would portray the abstractions of my
parallel architectural trajectories. This would be the story it would
celebrate, I told myself.
When
I played with the power sander like an unsupervised kid in a
playground, it became a moment of reflection and repose. The master
craftsman had me repeat the process of power sanding until the table
surface felt almost silky smooth to touch. It made me recall that
masonry wall I had to rebuild at Taliesin several times and what that
meant for me as an architect. By the time we completed the table, I knew
every dowel I installed in the joint intimately, and had molded the
surface edge profile like a sculptor to a sculpture.
There
was also an unmistakeable bond formed with my shop mates as a result of
building together, which in retrospect, was also present when I built
and rebuilt with the Taliesin Fellowship.
As
I looked at the parallel grain patterns on the table surface, now
glowing in natural luster after I airbrushed it with oil, an abstraction
of images appeared in my mind. They were like ripples of water washing
over land and yet the beauty of its patterns only became apparent after a
heavy blow of pressurized oil against its surface. At the culmination
of the crafting of this heirloom, global news spread like wildfire that
the strongest storm to hit the earth made landfall in the Philippines,
where I’m also licensed as an architect. It became a redefining moment
with a metaphorical message that in rebuilding, there is a reason for
hope, because the beauty of the unknown is waiting to be revealed, like
wood grain patterns glowing in natural luster. It’s time to transform.
Instead of keeping the Wing Hall Table for my personal collection, Thos. Moser and I (in coordination with White Good) have decided to donate this one-of-a-kind signature furniture to ALLL’s upcoming crowd funding campaign that would support a rebuilding project in connection with Typhoon Haiyan.
Our upcoming rebuilding project, the Leapfrog Project.
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The Wing Hall Table will be given out as a prize in a crowdfunding campaign. Image from Thos. Moser website
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Updates on the table: It's sold! The
winning bidder said after purchasing the table: "We have a
Taliesin-designed house - the Life Magazine Dream House - where the
table would fit beautifully. And join a Moser-design dining room table,
canopy bed, custom book case, and clock."