Mark Sullivan – Crafting a Sense of Place
The table is massive, as handsome and imposing as a tree.
A redwood tree, to be precise.
Built by Big Sur’s celebrated master craftsman Mark Sullivan, the new conference table will have pride of place in the Land Trust’s new office in Monterey. But this is about more than just an especially attractive piece of office furniture. This table has a story.
Mark Sullivan grew up in Big Sur during a time when, as he tells it, a person could stand in the middle of Highway 1 for hours and not see a single car go by. At age 12, Mary Post Fleenor became his foster mother. Mary was Billy Post’s sister, and Mark began an association with the family’s Post Ranch that continues to this day.
He started working with wood as a young man—his first built structure was the main building of Ragged Point—then went to Maine for eight years to learn fine cabinetry and design skills. In 1989 he returned to Big Sur and started his business, Big Sur Woodworks. Among his first pieces were the beautiful wood furnishings for the Post Ranch Inn. Word quickly spread of his work and soon his furniture could be found in several notable homes in Big Sur and beyond.
Todd Farrington, the Land Trust’s Community Affairs Manager, became familiar with Sullivan and his furniture while working as Guest Relations Manager at the Post Ranch Inn. When the topic arose of creating a new conference table for BSLT’s Monterey office, Farrington says, “Mark was the first person who came to mind.”
To imbue the table with the spirit of place that is so central to the identity and mission of The Big Sur Land Trust, it was decided to build the table out of local redwood, including wood from one of the Land Trust’s properties, Mitteldorf Preserve. Mitteldorf was once a logging operation, and though logging ceased in the 1970s, there remains on site usable milled wood from that era. More wood was supplied from a site near BSLT’s property at Glen Deven Ranch in Big Sur. Around six years ago, a redwood tree fell near Glen Deven, which Jim Cox, Glen Deven’s Ranch Manager, helped recover and chainsaw mill into rough slabs. These two sources would provide Sullivan with the raw materials for the Land Trust’s new table, as well as for some beautiful cabinets, designed by Carver + Schicketanz , that visitors to the Monterey office will be able to see in the reception area.
“It really speaks to who we are as an organization,” says Farrington. “Though our work takes us throughout many different parts of Monterey County, redwood trees and places like Mitteldorf are truly synonymous with The Big Sur Land Trust.”
As Sullivan puts it, “Redwood is Big Sur, really. Whole homes in Big Sur were built out of redwood trees.” For the Land Trust’s table, Sullivan chose wood that has kept a certain character. Though treated and polished to a gorgeous chocolate-brown sheen by Sullivan and his son, Joaquin, the table’s surface is marked by intricate knots and the lasting grain of the wood’s own history. Measuring six by ten feet, the enormous table will seat sixteen people—a new gathering place for the Land Trust and its partners to pursue a shared commitment to the long-term care of the unique lands and communities of the Central Coast.
