OUR MISSION

Beyond material production it is our mission to educate and expose people to the novelty and nuances of Urban Wood in a number of ways. We are hoping to expand in the following ways:

  • Leading UVA students in hands-on fabrication workshops that directly engage with sustainable design practices

  • Helping to organize and participate in sawmilling demonstrations for local high schools.

  • Pursuing opportunities to engage with the Charlottesville community in urban wood reclamation and utilization.

  • Creating a network between Colleges and Universities working through these issues

  • Piloting the use of an urban wood tracking software, Traece©, which allows for the easy capture of tree-specific and carbon-sequestration metadata, readily transferable to interested parties. 

  • Building and developing a UVA tree nursery close to Grounds for students to grow and re-plant collected specimens, effectively closing the loop on our processes. 

Where We Started

In 2019, the genesis of this initiative grew from an independent study led by Master of Landscape Architecture student Andrew Spears investigating what starting an initiative to mill UVA logs would require. The independent study ended with application for funding to build a solar kiln and the groundwork laid for next steps.

The focus throughout all these project formats is a system that will see lumber made available to students and the UVA community in general for potential material research, and fabrication of furnishings or elements for new buildings and outdoor spaces on Grounds, motivated by an understanding of the under-utilized resource that they are.

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Current Involvement 

  • Design Build Competition

  • Morven Student Garden Builds

  • Student Garden on Grounds Builds

  • Weekly Student Volunteer Builds

  • Wood cut printing

  • Solar Kiln build, with local High School class

  • Alderman Library renovation tables

Find our current activities and involvements listed below. As links and events become available and are relevant, they will be included. If you are interested in participating in any of the listed, please contact us.