Going Salvage Shopping In Detroit
Greeting Reuse Fans,
This week, I’m writing from Detroit, MI. Yes, Jeff Honnold, CJ’s tech guy, and I have been in the Motor City visiting a reuse nonprofit called the Architecture Salvage Warehouse (or ASWDetroit). We made the trip to see their lumber warehouse and wood shop. They are sharing information about their deconstruction operation, and value added products (in the reuse world, that means items that have been improved, or used to make other items) and we are sharing our experience with Reuse Retail, our inventory tracking system.
One of the differences between our operations is that they have lots of cool lumber. It comes from full deconstruction jobs they perform, that generate work for individuals with barriers to employment. They also have an impressive mix of value added products they fabricate “in-house” from the deconstructed lumber. The “cool touch” they apply to some of their products is to indicate, right on the product, the Detroit street address that “provided” the raw material for their creation! I recently purchased a “passive amp” from ASWD for my iPhone that works great… and its one of the few products in my life that I don’t spend time looking for a cord (expletive deleted)!
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ASWD designed and fabricated the passive amp for Detroit Audio Labs. The company approached ASWD because it wanted to make speaker cabinets from “Detroit lumber” and the inquiry got them a new product in the passive amp. ASWD customers are keenly interested in Detroit lumber! So much so that ASWD codes their warehouse lumber by salvage location. BTW, it is more popular than wood from the suburbs (as it should be)! 
I have included some additional photos of products they create with salvaged lumber. Our day culminated with a tour of locations where ASWD has done salvaged interiors for a bottle shop, a restaurant called Growlers and Howlers (reuse and craft beer are linked in more places than Pittsburgh!), and the Detroit Foundation Hotel, a spectacular adaptive reuse project that turned an old firehouse into a destination hotel! If you are planning a trip to Detroit at least stop by and have a drink at the bar.
