The bamboo sculpture BambooDNA had planned for the Mile High Music Festival was a scaled down version of the big boy at coachella earlier this year.   The budget was low so we planned on hitting it with only 7 guys.  I was surprised when the boys picked me up in a luxury rental car with black leather interior.  Thats usually not our style.

The concert site was in these giant fields next to Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, home of Denver’s Major League Soccer team.  Our meals were catered in the stadium.. which was pretty cool.  We got to soak in a game while we were at it. 

We unloaded the prefabricated columns off the truck by hand and rolled them on bamboo poles over to the setup area old school style.   Six of these columns get erected by manpower only and guywired down.  Here we have our expert rigger Brandon Niles pulling up a column with a little help from his pulley friends as JP and Kevin move the steel base plate into position.

A few weeks ago I shipped out my largest order for chaboos yet.  Wasteland Clothing is opening a new location in Burbank, CA and ordered ten chaboos with minor customization and one custom jumbo chaboo.

Here is the whole family of chaboos.  To the left is the original- 12.5h x 14″d x 32″w.  Middle is medium chaboo 15 x 18 x 36.  JUMBO chaboo is 18 x 24 x 48!!! For scale is my brother.  He is actually 7ft 2″ tall, 325 lbs- thatll give you an idea of size!

I had to change the design to accomidate the extra length.  With 3/4″ I wouldnt go past a 36″ span without a beam supporting it.  The half moon cutout creates the handhold in the top like in the original.  Clever clever.

This order came in through a random google hit to my website searching for bamboo benches.  They had never heard of Project Chaboo or seen the website.  AFTER ALL THAT my only online sale had nothing to do with Project Chaboo.  Funnnnny

My brothers friend’s family runs the architectural salvage company Aurora Mills.  The business is run out of an old mill in Aurora just like the name says.  Duh!  Super cool place.  One of those things where you pretty much just have to go there yourself to feel what its really like.

I love the nature of this old mill- how its been pieced together and added on to through the years.  It has the feel of some of the buildings in the Miyazaki animations.  The owners son, Seth Burns gave a few of us a super top secret insider tour.  Here he is with my friend Emily Steen of Built-Studios.

Seth showed me some casting molds hidden in storage.  These are molds made out of wood to make metal parts.  Simply amazing.  I never even knew these things existed.  Mold makers were the finest craftsmen of the era. No lasers or CNCs back then.

Besides the really cool antique parts theyve salvaged, they also have loads of salvaged lumber.  BIG beams from old barns and such.

If youve never been here and live in Oregon, its well worth a trip out there to check it out.  I got so many furniture ideas and inspiration from seeing the history there.  I will save them for some other day!

Its the time of year where I take off on my adventures with BambooDNA.  With the increasing responsibilities of my kids TomitaDesigns and Project Chaboo, Im scaling back this year.  Last year I was gone for two months, this year I will only miss 3 business days and squeeze in a rafting trip.

I will be at the Mile High Music Festival in Denver to build a “light” version of the bamboo skyscraper at Coachella this year.  It will be “only” 66ft tall.  We have a compact, experienced crew of 7 BambooDNAers to build this monster in only 3 days.  Can you say “working by generator”? Im interested to see how things go with so few people but all very experienced builders.  It brings back memories of building starry mandala at burning man in 2006 with basically only 7 people at the same time.

We can go to the concert for free but ill probably pass.  The crew is going rafting on Saturday!  Excited for Denver- stay tuned.

A few months ago I completed a big project for the Jupiter Hotel (hotel connected to Doug Fir). They did a big remodel designed by Mark Design group and I was hired to produce custom desks and headboards with end tables for 54 rooms.

Custom desk below with glossy white laminate.  I took their design concept and redesigned to work for the budget I was presented with.  To save costs I designed it to be IKEA on steroids.  Everything is knockdown but with super heavy duty 35mm Cam hardware and glued together on site with 3/4″ backs.  Parts were made at a local mill that has a CNC machine and we assembled the parts at my shop.

Detail of the headboards and boxes below.  Boxes are bolted on from the back with 8 2.5″ conformat screws.  Again, overbuilt.  I changed the original design to a stronger proportion.  I dont like getting callbacks and I assumed the worst for abuse at this rowdy hotel!

It was a fun challenge dealing with a huge quantity (54) and limited budget.  I feel really good about working with the budget and producing something strong very efficiently.

I think Ive found a nice niche where I can do big projects like this at much less expense than the other big companies that do this kind of work.  I keep things simple here with low overhead and efficient and flexible operations.

What a great experience!  Thank you to the folks at the Jupiter and also Mark Design Group for helping me pull this project off.  Im looking forward to getting more work in the hospitality field.