Looking Out Week 4_ Sophie Riedel

While running out of material for blog posts on the use of wood in architecture seems impossible, I feel it necessary too look outside the typical definition of wood as timber. After researching Beech Trees, an indigenous tree to our New Hampshire site, I've found a plentiful load of images and factoids (not just three) that interested me, whether they relate to an architectural scale or not.

1. London's Hyde Park famous "upside down tree" is an European Beech. While not actually upside down, the low hanging branches seems to dumps their leaves onto the grassy floor allowing for kids and hunched-over parents to occupy the canopy space, tangling themselves in the hip branches of this see and be-seen landmark of London. While European Beech's are faster growing, the American Beech is what is located on our site and is better suited to warm climates.














2. Daniel Boone,Western folk hero famous for shooting panthers and settling the west, vandalized a Beech tree in the late 1700's and it is now on display in Louisville, Kentucky. With a life span of over 300 yrs, Beech trees, known for their smooth silvery gray bark don the carved names of centuries of hikers, lovers, and hooligans with sharp objects. Similar to a bathroom stall wall or light post, these trunks can be used to as a part of our social landscape.

3. I just had to include these because WHAAAAAA (some curzy 50's ads)