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By Nancy B. Solomon, AIA

This article is also available for Continuing Education credit here.

For architects who grew up in the United States, there are certain woods that seem as American—and as familiar—as apple pie: oak, pine, and maple, to name just a few. Early on, some foreign woods became well known in certain domestic applications—examples include teak for outdoor furniture and mahogany for fine cabinetry—but they were indeed the exception to the rule. Times have changed, however, and American architects are being enchanted by a broad palette of exotic species—from afrormosia to wenge—whose names, let alone attributes, many are still trying to learn.

What makes a wood exotic? According to Dan Meyerson, who has been selling wood veneer to architects from the New York office of Bacon Veneer Company since 1993, there is no official definition. “Generally speaking, the layperson thinks that it is a wood from a tropical rain forest,” he explains. For some, however, exotic connotes wood from trees that are rare or endangered, no matter where they take root. For those in the building trade, the term can refer to the kinds of woods that are highly desirable—because they are extremely well suited, in terms of both aesthetics and workability, to structure, finishes, or cabinetry—but whose availability is limited. Even if a particular species can be found in abundance, an architect or woodworker may not often find a high-quality specimen within that species that can meet desired design and construction standards.

 

Gary Lee Partners specified pearl movingue veneer for Madison Dearborn Partners’ Chicago lobby. The temperate wood from Africa was dyed in Italy. Photography: © Steve Hall/Hedrich Blessing

In keeping with Webster’s primary definition of exotic—“foreign; not native”—any wood that is not indigenous to our country would fall into this category. Many types of woods are imported into the United States from both temperate and tropical countries, and they are used in any number of applications, from structural lumber to panel veneer. Interest in these woods is clearly growing: According to Foreign Trade Statistics, which is provided by the Department of Commerce’s U.S. Census Bureau (www.fas.usda.gov/ustrade/ustimbico.asp), 43 percent more tropical hardwood lumber and a staggering 358 percent more hardwood flooring entered this country from abroad in 2003 as compared to 1993.