Old Growth Redwood Lumber Salvaged from Original CR Library Building Will Be Used by Students in Part to Build a Tiny Home in Eureka
Press release from College of the Redwoods:
The first of the College of the Redwoods original buildings to be demolished will come down on September 23rd, but there is a silver lining to the demolition in the form of the rare, old growth redwood lumber the builders used when it was originally constructed back in 1967.
Construction Technology professor Derek Glavich recognized the value in the old lumber while doing a walkthrough of the condemned building about a year ago. He was amazed by the quantity and quality of the boards that lined every wall and ceiling, as well as the structural beams throughout the main room of the building.
Glavich got in touch with President Flamer and received permission to salvage the lumber and any other materials they could find in the building. Since getting the “OK”, Glavich, along with his Construction Tech colleagues Bert Hafar and Leonard Bechler, has worked at night and in-between classes to save as much of the pristine redwood as possible.
Glavich says. “I’m really grateful to Steve McKenzie, CR’s new Director of Facilities and Planning, and Dr. Flamer for their help in making this happen. This is a rare opportunity for our students to work with such a beautiful and uncommon material. You can find old growth redwood at lumberyards around Humboldt County, but it’s very expensive and most of it is salvaged from old stumps they pull out of the ground and, at most, it’s 7 feet long.”
The redwood boards they’re recovering from the library are a wide range of shapes and sizes and they’ll use them for a number of student projects, including siding the first ever CR tiny house. They’ll also run it through the Architectural Millworks class to use as molding and trim on next year’s student-built house, which will be constructed in an historic neighborhood in Eureka. Using this old growth redwood will tie the new house in with the aesthetic of the neighborhood and maintain its historic integrity.
CR is delighted that they were able to hold on to this piece of history and to pay it forward by providing future students the opportunity to work with the same materials used in the very first buildings on the CR campus. Salvaging the redwood also supports the mission of sustainability that is central to many of the programs at CR.
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🕯🌳That’s cool.👍🏽🖖
Yes…more tiny houses, created by people learning an indispensable craft, and re-using great old materials! There’s absolutely no downside to this practice- more like this – please! Cudos to CR! Couple up with HSU’s alternative energy dept. &and go go go.
Maybe use empty buildings that are all over the county to create alternative living places, with group kitchens & laundry/bathing areas to help lower income folks have good & fun places to rent. Especially students from CR & HSU. Why not? Add veggie gardens, and maybe even chickens& ducks- then people can live more confidently, knowing they can be more self-sufficient for the rest of their lives. That’s education!
Or maybe use the existing building as living space instead of tearing it down to build tinyhouses?
It’s condemned, probably because of asbestos or deferred maintenance.
It is on a fault line.
Have it be like habitat for humanity… if you want to live there without paying full market rent, you need to volunteer to clean and repair it first.
Or maybe sell the lumber and use the proceeds to buy materials for even more tiny houses?
“Yes…more tiny houses, created by people learning an indispensable craft, and re-using great old materials! There’s absolutely no downside to this practice- more like this – please! Cudos to CR! Couple up with HSU’s alternative energy dept. &and go go go.”
I’ll second that!
WTG CR!
Rumour has it that the old building they tore down to build In-N-Out was full of old growth?
It was all old growth. When I inquired into it, I was told it was a steel-frame building, with no salvageable redwood in it, when in reality it was framed in old growth Doug fir, and sided in old growth redwood.
Thousands of feet of irreplaceable lumber ground into chips, and hauled to the landfill.
That is criminal! Or it should be!! How the heck can any self-respecting construction guy do something like that to wood that is as rare and valuable (money and beauty) as that?!!
🕯🌳Sometimes you people are so blinded by the the forest you don’t see the tree.
Sometimes you connect a string of words together that don’t make sense.
Such beautiful wood, glad it is being salvaged.
The site has an earthquake fault under it, so nothing can be built there. The building itself can not be used because of the danger (State laws). So to re-use the materials is wonderful. It was a beautiful library.
I loved that library. I thought it was one of the most beautiful uses of an interior garden I’d ever seen.
I agree with you Kym. That library holds some incredible memories for me. Sad to see it go, but I am pleased that the best parts are being salvaged.
Me, too.
What ever happened to the CR wood fair? That was one of the best events of the year.