Galveston, Texas 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall
Galveston, Texas 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall
Galveston, Texas 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall
Galveston, Texas 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall
Galveston, Texas 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall
Galveston, Texas 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall

Galveston, Texas 3D Wood Map | Laser-Cut Birch Depth Chart

$ 314.00
13.5 x 43 in
Baltic birch, hand-stained water
Up to nine laser-cut birch layers
Carved bathymetric relief, laser-etched labels
Soundings: NOAA nautical survey data
How the Water Becomes Wood

A chart is a stack of flat sheets until the water's real soundings tell it what shape to take.

  1. SurveyReal bathymetric sounding data sets every contour line before a single cut is made.
  2. CutEach depth band is laser-cut from its own sheet of Baltic birch, up to nine layers deep.
  3. StainWater layers are stained by hand, reading darker the deeper the water runs.
  4. StackThe sheets are registered and stacked in sequence, and the bed's true shape rises out of the wood.
  5. EtchDepths and place names are burned into the grain itself, never printed on it.
  6. FrameA solid Baltic birch frame and acrylic glass finish the piece, ready to hang.

Galveston in a 13.5 by 43 inch panorama of stacked Baltic birch: the island city carved one depth contour per layer, seawall to bay, jetties to Bolivar.

Galveston's defining story is written in its elevation: after the 1900 hurricane, still the deadliest natural disaster in American history, the city built its seventeen-foot seawall and then jacked the entire town up behind it, raising thousands of buildings on screws in one of the great engineering feats of its era. The Strand's Victorian blocks, survivors of the storm, now anchor the historic district; the Bolivar ferry crosses the channel free of charge as it has for generations; and the jetties reach miles into the Gulf holding the harbor entrance open. On the chart, the seawall's straight defended line and the natural bay behind tell both halves of the island's bargain with the sea.

Each contour is a separate laser-cut sheet, stacked by hand and engraved, behind acrylic glass in a solid Baltic birch frame.

The island that refused to move: forty-three inches of the whole stubborn story.

The engraving spans the seawall and the Strand, the harbor and jetties, Pelican Island, and Bolivar across the channel. Upstream: Houston.

  • 13.5 × 43 in
  • Solid Baltic birch frame
  • Acrylic glass front, ready to hang
  • Free next-business-day shipping on orders placed by 2 PM EST
  • 14-day returns
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