Eco-friendly cladding adds sustainability to new Martial Cottle Park
ST. CLAIR, Michigan – March 24, 2016 – Martial Cottle Park in San Jose, California recently welcomed three new facilities expected to achieve LEED Silver certifications. These additions, built with Kebony’s modified softwoods, will complement the 287-acre landscape and include a 4,000 square foot Visitor Center that neighbors the park’s historic orchards, a 3,600 square foot Staff and Maintenance Building with storage and a 300 square foot entry kiosk.
Contractors used Kebony Character grade as a sun shading device and rain screen for the cladding on each of the facilities. The modified softwood was also applied to pre-fabricated bathrooms and utilized as a fencing material connected to the structures. The project, designed by professionals at Page & Turnbull in collaboration with the California and Santa Clara County Departments of Parks and Recreation, will offer space for park staff and visitor orientation, two capacious informative exhibits, and indoor and outdoor galleries.
Developed in Norway, Kebony’s technology permanently enhances the properties of sustainable softwood, giving it the same characteristics and cellular makeup of tropical hardwoods. Kebony was chosen as a key construction material for this project because of the company’s commitment to green building. The wood’s durability and striking natural beauty made it the ideal choice for the project, which called for both durable and low-maintenance materials. Kebony wood has a rich brown color that eventually fades to a silver-grey patina, requiring only basic cleaning and upkeep.
“We wanted to use building materials that would showcase the natural scenery of this beautiful landscape without compromising the structural integrity of the facilities. Kebony’s durability, high resistance to California’s extreme weather conditions and toxin-free nature aligned with our vision of sustainability and giving back to this park district,” explained Tom Dufurrena, Principal Architect at Page & Turnbull.
“Kebony is dedicated to providing high-quality, eco-friendly materials, and we believe that our products highlight the beauty and design efforts of Page & Turnbull,” said Andy Hehl, US Manager for Kebony.
The park, which opened in December of 2014 as a joint County and State project, was donated by Walter Cottle Lester to be turned into a historic agricultural park. Lester wanted to preserve the heritage of the area and provide Santa Clara families with educational and recreational opportunities pertaining to the landscape. The park has a working farm and additional trails for running, hiking and biking.
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*Kebony Technology
The Kebony technology is a patented process which enhances the properties of non-durable wood species to give them similar characteristics to the best performing woods. Through a sustainable process wood species such as pines and some non-durable hardwoods are impregnated with a bio-based liquid derived from agricultural crop waste. With the addition of heat, the furfuryl polymer is permanently grafted into the wood cell wall, resulting in greatly improved durability and dimensional stability.
*Kebony Wood
Kebony is suitable for both internal and external applications that demand high performance and great aesthetics including: decking, flooring, cladding, roofing, windows, indoor and outdoor furniture. Over time Kebony acquires its characteristic silver-grey patina while not losing its performance characteristics. With improved durability and dimensional stability Kebony is becoming increasingly the choice of leading architects and developers enabling them to use wood in projects without causing environmental degradation. Kebony has been used both internationally and in the U.S. on many projects from commercial, public, residential and marine, a few examples of these would be; Hunter’s Point South Waterfront Park in New York, The Inn at Harbor Shores in St. Joseph Michigan, an award-winning residential “Wedge House” in Palo Alto, California. A recent study by Norwegian environmental consulting firm Bergfald & Co. demonstrated that Kebony has a substantially lower carbon footprint than its tropical hardwood equivalents.