2009 Specialty Products Winner: Banana Leaf Gate

WoodVerks created a 3-D door from utile.

WoodVerks of Sarasota Inc. fabricates doors and entry systems and specializes in unique and challenging projects. When a client brought Jeffrey Stearns, owner, such a project, the result was the winner of this year’s Specialty Products category.

“I love something that is different,” says Stearns. “We got this drawing and I said, ‘I don’t like this, and [the client] said, ‘I know. That is why I sent it to you. What do you want to do with it?’”

Stearns told him that the gate needed to be 3-D with multiple layers. “When you look at it closely, we think the reason that it has such appeal is because of the three different layers of material involved in making the project,” Stearns notes. “That’s what gives it depth.”

According to Stearns’ son, Dean, one of the biggest challenges was figuring out how to build the gate without a frame. “It’s basically a panel with no frame,” he says. “With the way that it opens there is no center stile; there is no outer stile; there is no top rail or bottom rail. The toughest thing was figuring out how to leave as much negative space as possible and have it still be structurally sound to work and operate and to exist outside in a traffic environment. Because there are large gaps between the top and the bottom, it was difficult to figure out how we would set up each leaf so it would be supported and could support other parts of the door. That is basically what led to the 3-D design.”

The laminated leaves provide strength to the whole system. The whole process of making the gate was a quick turnaround because the client, an architectural landscaper, needed it quickly for an industry trade show. Stearns says that when a project comes in, it usually takes him a day or two to conceptualize the design and sketch it whole.

Utile was used to fabricate the gate because a wood that laminates well was needed. Utile also has a natural grain that looks nice with the finish, Dean says.

The center disk is figured oak, which is finished with aluminum trailer paint. “When we got to the medallion, it was supposed to be aluminum. We had a piece of figured oak that we’ve had for five or six years. We used silver trailer roof paint. When I put the silver paint on the figured oak, it gave it texture,” Stearns says.

Everything on the gate is wood except for the green aqua-colored glass handle. According to Stearns, the architect had a color theme and it was nature, plus clean aluminum, plus bluish green to lend to the natural appeal of the design. “He wanted a blue glass, but if it was too blue it wouldn’t look right because it would be too transparent and it wouldn’t look blue,” he notes. “We found a dark [green] piece of glass that was hard to see through unless it was illuminated well from outside.”

The gate opens in the middle and each side is configured differently. The center disk is attached to the left side and each side has three to four layers of 1/4-inch utile. The leaf shapes are cut out with a band saw and glued and laminated together.

“This construction method also generates the 3-D look and lends to the ‘floating center disk’ effect,” Dean says. The natural “floating look,” which is accented by the 3-D/multi-level panels, is created by the no stiles construction.

“We love stuff that comes in that is not normal,” says Stearns. “[We love the] satisfaction you get when you see customers’ eyes when you take a flat drawing and make it 3-D.”