International Wood International Wood 2008 | Page 36

“Zebrawood is also specified for two new prototype 7 For All
Mankind stores against painted white fixtures. They’re using it as a
border around wall shelving and on tops of the display tables with the
grain ‘waterfalling’ over the sides.”
PENGUINS IN ROSEWOOD
Santos rosewood adorns fixtures in
the flagship Original Penguin store in
Beverly Hills.
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wood
Another recent HCM project for which a unique wood veneer was
specified is the Original Penguin flagship store in Beverly Hills.
Original Penguin was the first to market the now-ubiquitous Polo
shirt. It’s an older clothing retailer that had always taken the store-in-
store approach with displays in larger department stores like Macy’s
and Bloomindales. Two years ago their company decided to step out in
style, and chose HCM to bring their vision to life.
“It’s kind of retro in design,” says Sagrillo, “and they use a lot of old
photographs from the 1950s. The wood they wanted ended up being
Santos rosewood (Machaerium scleroxylon). They wanted a rich warm
tone that you can’t really get with any domestic woods.
“Pretty much the entire store is done in veneer. There are no solid
pieces of rosewood. Most exotic woods require you to get creative with
their veneers because the solids are either not available, or are much
harder to match from piece to piece. With veneers, you’ve got thin
layers of woodgrain sliced from the same part of the log so that the
grain characteristics are similar and can be easily matched. This store
is a very clean build using European style cabinetry with no stiles and
rails. It’s all panel construction, so the veneers worked well.”