How Sustainable Tables Help Us Live Our Mission

One of the terrific finished products.

As you’re perhaps aware, Forterra moved into a new office space in downtown Seattle this week. The new office provides us with the opportunity to really live our commitment to creating a sustainable region. Our new home, 901 5th Avenue, is a LEED Silver certified building. The suite we moved into was a blank slate and we were able to design and construct a workspace that not only suits our needs and our mission, but is furnished with as much sustainably-produced furniture as possible.

Our brand new conference room and café tables were designed and built by Seattle’s NK Build, a small custom furniture and design company. NK Build’s Noah Kriegsmann kindly provided us with the rundown of where he sourced the table materials and the process his company used to put them together. As well as some photos of construction. It’s a neat story!

Noah wrote:

All the wood was purchased from Rhine Demolition's Reclaimed Lumberyard in Tacoma. The Douglas Fir and Redwood beams in the meeting tables mostly came from Rainier Cold Storage. We treated the wood with a solution of white vinegar that had steel wool left in it for several weeks. The steel dissolved into the mixture and colors the wood partially from rust, and partially from a chemical reaction with the tannins in the wood. The maple slabs of the conference tables were made of domestically and sustainably produced wood, grown in the Northeast U.S. We purchased the slabs through Crosscut Hardwoods in Seattle.

All steel used in meeting and conference tables came from Everett Steel in Seattle.

The coffee table is made from a remnant of a tree that came down in a storm near Maple Valley. The wood was treated, as well, with the iron and vinegar solution. The steel came from the remnant bin at Everett Steel in Seattle.

All the tables were constructed in our wood/metal shop next to Gasworks Park. We worked with O.B Williams Company in SoDo to do large milling procedures with big drum sanders. The finish on the wood is conversion varnish, sprayed at CM Miller in Ballard.

Thanks again to Noah and NK Build for the wonderful furniture.

We hope you'll come see the finished products yourself on December 5 at our Holiday Open House!