Oak trees that once stood on Virginia Beach surf park site will get a new life
When the city was beginning to look at proposals to redevelop the former Dome site six years ago, a handful of business owners gathered there on a grassy lot under old oak trees to talk about preserving the park-like setting. They wanted some of the land to remain undeveloped.
Last week, Venture Realty Group and the city closed on the deal to build Atlantic Park, a $335 million mixed-used project that will include an entertainment venue, a surf park, apartments, offices, shops and restaurants. And while green space is planned at Atlantic Park, the developer removed the oak trees on the land between 19th and 20th streets this week to begin construction.
But instead of clearing the site as fast as possible by bulldozing the trees and chopping them into pieces, general contractor W.M. Jordan ensured more than two dozen tree trunks remained intact.
Aubrey’s Tree Service has been delivering them to a nearby lot, where Patrick Ryan, a woodworker and owner of Benevolent Design Co., will repurpose the trees into furniture that will be used throughout Atlantic Park’s buildings.
Ryan and his team of sawyers will spend the next couple of weeks using a mill to cut the trees into 12-foot long slabs. Some of the slabs they’ve already cut are up to 48 inches wide. It will take about a year to dry the wood in Benevolent Design’s workshop.
Ryan’s not sure how many pieces he’ll be able to create yet or exactly where they may go.
He estimated the trees were between 60 and 80 years old. Some of them were hollow and at the end of their life span, according to Ryan.
“There were quite a few I was hoping to use and couldn’t,” he said.
On Wednesday morning, Ryan and Alec Yuzhbabenko, an architect with Hanbury, contemplated the potential of creating a reception desk out of one of the freshly-milled massive slabs. Mounds of sawdust covered the ground where they have been working this week.
Yuzhbabenko’s college thesis paper years ago was the inspiration for the surf park, and he has continued to work with the developer on the project since its inception.
He described the furniture that will be made from the trees as being “almost like art sculptures throughout the development.”
The first phase of the Atlantic Park development, which includes the include the surf park, entertainment venue, commercial aspects, and more than 300 multifamily homes and office space, has anticipated opening date of summer 2025.
Ryan has built tables, shelving, bar stools and other furniture for several local businesses including Taste at Town Center, Esoteric in the ViBe Creative District and Back Bay Brewery. He also creates made-to-order custom pieces from reclaimed wood for private residences. His website features dining tables, side tables and benches with clean lines and thick wood tops ranging in price from about $500 to more than $2,000.
Ryan’s looking forward to preserving the natural look of the wood for Atlantic Park, knots and all.
“It gives it character,” he said. “It sets it apart.”
Yuzhbabenko’s happy to see the same trees that lived for decades in one place will eventually return home.
“They’ve been rooted in a soil that has seen and heard a lot of sounds even when the Dome was here,” he said. “It’s almost a crime to not let those trees stay on the project in some way.”
Stacy Parker, 757-222-5125, stacy.parker@pilotonline.com
