The Tables at Fahrenheit
Fahrenheit recently had tables custom made for our dining room with the help of A Piece of Cleveland (APOC), a local company that specialize in reclaiming materials from "deconstructed" buildings in the Cleveland area. Designer/Fabricators Ezra Taxel, P J Doran, and Aaron Gogolin put their highly refined skills to work and turned what many would have tossed aside as fodder for the landfill into beautiful and functional works of art.
The tables at Fahrenheit include a portion of the materials reclaimed
from a stone bungalow at 3726 Bradley Rd in
Westlake, built in 1927.
A custom made sign attached to a tree at the head of the driveway names
the house 16 Oaks, probably for the trees that dot the two acre
property. Although the house was expanded somewhat over the years,
it was torn down in 2008 to make room for a larger building. APOC
was able to save oak flooring, birch doors and trim, and southern yellow
pine framing lumber from the landfill before the demo equipment came in.
According to public record, the
1400 square
foot colonial at 1425 W 65th Street was built in 1915.
It was owned by multiple members, and
possibly multiple generations, of the Zarrelli family in the 80’s, 90’s
and likely even further back. One current neighbor reminisced that
they owned a great deal of property in the neighborhood while living
here. He also said that they would occasionally throw spaghetti
dinners for their tenants and other neighborhood residents. The
Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization bought the property
in the mid nineties and in 2007 the home was slated for demolition.
Construction on nearby Detroit Road was going to eliminate street
parking and the city needed to expand the parking lot adjacent to 1425.
APOC recovered hardwood flooring, oak and pine molding, old growth pine
2X4’s and 2X8’s, and solid wood doors before the house came down which
was also used in the Fahrenheit tables.
Finally, some parts of the Fahrenheit tables are constructed from hardwoods that were reclaimed from
heavy duty shipping pallets
that were being thrown away.
Items like raw metal weigh so much that they must be delivered to
manufacturers on pallets made from sturdy woods like oak, maple, cherry, and
hickory. Usually these pallets are thrown away after one use because it is
cheaper to use a new one than return an old one. APOC rescues some
of this wood and turns it into raw material for everything from facings
to table components.