White cedar samples: rough-sawn (left) and dressed (right)
The main construction material for the pavilion is white cedar. White cedar is not a terrifically well-known material, so here is some information about it (and about cedar wood in general).
White cedar grows locally.
If you see cedar trees growing in Ontario, they are probably Eastern White Cedar. Western Red Cedar grows mainly out in British Columbia. Although Red Cedar is an excellent natural building material, choosing to use it here means importing and therefore carries a greater carbon footprint when used in our locale. White Cedar production as a building material is limited, seeming to occur mostly throughout Eastern Ontario and the Northeastern States. Our cedar was sourced from Loyalist Forest in Erinsville (just north of Belleville), a sustainably-managed timber operation. You can learn more about the forest and its practices on their website.
Cedar has a history.
Cedar has a long history of use in exposed outdoor applications such as shake roofs, split-rail fences, decks and docks. In our region, the grey patina of aged white cedar is a familiar texture in our agrarian landscapes. On the west coast, where the climate is very damp and red cedar very available, cedar is a significant material in indigenous architectures.
Cedars are naturally rot-resistant.
Cedar contains naturally-occuring chemicals that make it rot-resistant and best able to withstand weathering. Unlike pressure-treated wood, it does not need to be impregnated with harsh synthetic chemicals (which then leach out over time, and eventually pose a disposal problem). Think of it this way: cedar-planked salmon is tasty, but pressure-treated-planked salmon would be toxic.
Cedar smells amazing.
Being outdoors engages all of our senses; it's fantastic if our architecture can do this as well!
If you're still with me after that brief, nerdy digression, here are some photos of the arrival of the wood. Although we were expecting it to come by transport truck, we were a little surprised to be confronted with a double-length flatbed looking to pull into the Springbank parking lot. (Apparently the driver had just unloaded a much larger supply of wood elsewhere in our region.) I'm always amazed how drivers can manoeuvre these rigs; he had no trouble sliding right up the gravel drive without any disturbance to the surrounding landscape.
When arranging the delivery, the man at the mill had asked hopefully if we had a forklift to use to take the wood off the truck. When I told him that, instead, we had a crew of volunteers who would be unloading the wood, he sounded nervous. "Well, you'd better have a bunch of them. It's a lot of wood, will they be able to handle it? And what if it rains, will they still show up?" the man inquired. Fair questions, I suppose. He's never met the volunteers around here.
Thankfully, the weather was excellent. It was a big job, but we had an excellent assembly line of people transferring wood off the truck, and then into pickups and up the hill. Finally, the wood was restacked, ready for cutting.
Many thanks to John, Dave, Todd, Lexie, Allister, Nick, Jan, Pat, Bob, and Laura for lending their hands!
