By rotating faculty mailboxes to 45 degrees the new installation hides the content of the mailboxes while exposing reclaimed urban ash plywood fins. From the office entrance, the wall appears only as ash plywood. The urban ash plywood was sourced from ash trees that had to be removed due to EAB or storm damage in Milwaukee. Logs were veneered in Wauwatosa, WI and laminated in Green Bay, WI. The installation was completed with the help of SARUP students (listed below) in the SARUP Woodshop.

Per the US Forest Service, over 141 million acres of forest are found in urban areas throughout the United States. One average annual urban tree removal in the US equates to 7.2 billion board feet of lumber. Much of this wood is underutilized or simply thrown away. David Nowak of the US Forest Service estimates that 3-4 billion board feet could easily be transformed into usable lumber, each year!

Design Team:
Assistant Professor Alex Timmer

Construction Team:
Fritz Ekstrom
Andrea Medoza
Alicia Kandall
Isabelle Hanley

Special Thanks:
Interim Dean Mo Zell
William Krueger

Photos by Connor Every