Terminal Warehouse Furniture

In a nod to Terminal Warehouse’s past, 400 year old heart-pine joists were salvaged from the building and transformed into kinetic tables, paying homage to the building’s importance as a 19th century rail-hub.

Working in a delegated design process with the team at Cook Fox, SITU Fabrication developed four rolling tables, custom chairs and lobby benches for this iconic project on Manhattan’s west side

As a central feature of the interior street that runs the length of the publicly accessible lobby, the 14’ x 5’ work tables anchor the space and offer tenants and guests a place to eat, work or socialize while enjoying the building's amenities. The wood tops are milled from old growth southern yellow pine that was salvaged and repurposed from the building itself, helping to achieve LEED Platinum status and reducing the building's carbon footprint to nearly half that of new construction.

The welded steel chassis were designed and detailed to evoke the industrial character of 19th century railways and roll along a stainless inlay that follows the historic railroad tracks beneath the floor. Electrical outlets and data ports located along the perimeter of each table add to the functionality of this custom furniture.

Working with historic timbers can be extremely rewarding. A study by Columbia Dendrologists confirmed via core sampling that certain timbers found in Terminal Warehouse stretched all the way back to 1512. At the same time old growth wood is extremely dense and heavy, even for a softwood like pine. Cutting tools are dulled quicker than standard lumber, and many of the joists were still saturated with sap which gummed up tools and required a specific approach to finishing.