America Looks Back Home

(Continued from page 30) of the day, he was proud his hotel had heart.

In the months following the attack, "hearth and home," whether residential or commercial, became upside down. The previously thriving commercial hospitality business became soft. Residential was red hot. Especially flooring, hickory flooring.

As a whole, we were less intrigued with the foreign and exotic. We had new respect for all things synonymous with red, white, and blue. There was a resurgence of the hardwood species, hickory. A species so enduring and American, that after our seventh president, Andrew Jackson, turned back the British, he was dubbed "Ole Hickory." Now, do I think architects across the nation were consciously specifying a species native to the heartland of America? Not specifically, but I do think the density, hardness and availability lent itself to the desire for surrounding ourselves with something that could withstand our own mortality.

I was stranded for a week, unable to return home. The stores reopened, and I went shoe shopping. I hunted, to no avail, for knock-offs of Dorothy's Oz shoes and recited,

SPEI[.DIAN HARDWOODS

"There's no place like home," but when I woke up I was still in New York. The midtown hotel I was staying at was not reminiscent of home. It was austere by design, with faux stone, glass, and marble. Not a stick of wood in sight. The public rooms were sparse, edgy and uncomfortable. Extra chairs were brought in so the staff and guests could gather around a hastily hung American flag. It was the occupants, with the common love of the homeland, who brought the warmth into hospitality that day.

This past year commercial hospitality construction began looking for ways to be, well, less commercial. Maple-cool white, glitzy and impersonal-is losing favor. It is being replaced by the warm, homey, inviting woods-cherry, white oak, walnut, even alder. And, yes, hickory is gracing the public living areas, inviting one to sit for a spell.

I commemorated September ll, 2OO2 in Jackson Hole, Wy., rendezvousing with my new granddaughter and her parents. We all, in some ways, lost our innocence that terrible day last year. But I found mine again, looking into the deep blue pools of Sally Ann's eyes. Jackson Hole has been a temporary home to Native American Indians and French trappers since before the first permanent settlers moved into the valley. Cattle ranchers became the springboard to the first of the dude ranches. The hospitality industry soon became the basis of the local economy.

Cedqr Products

The hotel I stayed at remained unchanged since 9-11, or over the past 100 years so it appeared. It was immediately welcoming. The interior is finished in knotty pine with a central staircase leading up to a large comfortable room furnished in lodgepole pine furniture. The pine, originally indigenous to the region, is now federally protected. The hotel, too, has been placed on The National Register of Historical Sites, so I don't think any modern architect will be effecting any changes any time soon. It is reassuring that "Home on the Range" hospitality is not endangered.

From the East Coast. with its Yankee Doodle hospitality, to the West, where the deer and the antelope play, whether home or temporary lodging, the residual of 9-l I is a heightened awareness of our surroundings. We have a new respect for the instincts of the homing pigeon.

plonting 1.7 million lrees everT doy is o smorl investmenl.

The Sustoinoble Forestry Initiotive@ progrom is dedicoted to the future of the notion's forests, os well os the chollenge of preseruing rore ond endongered forests oround the world. Respect for noture ond sound business proctices ore integroted to the benefit of the environment, londowners, shoreholders, customers ond the people they serve. And thot ollows us to meet the demond for wood ond poper products, while helping to ensure our forests will be oround forever.

rrrrorNABLE F.RESTRY rNrtATrvE@ I Grcrwing ronrolrcu/s forecs todcry.' www.oboutsfi.org