Manhattan, New York 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall
Manhattan, New York 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall
Manhattan, New York 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall
Manhattan, New York 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall
Manhattan, New York 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall
Manhattan, New York 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall
Manhattan, New York 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall
Manhattan, New York 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall
Manhattan, New York 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall
Manhattan, New York 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall

Manhattan, New York 3D Wood Map | Laser-Cut Birch Depth Chart

$ 262.00
Size
Frame
13.5 x 31 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.

Manhattan and its waters in laser-cut Baltic birch, 13.5 by 31 inches: the island itself, the rivers that define it, and the harbor that built it, carved one depth contour per layer in a tall format that matches the island's shape.

Manhattan is easy to forget as an island until you see it charted. The Hudson runs deep along the west side, a drowned fjord carrying ocean tide a hundred miles upstate; the East River, not a river at all but a tidal strait, boils through Hell Gate where its currents once wrecked ships by the hundred; and at the Battery the two meet in the Upper Bay within sight of the Statue of Liberty. On the chart, the island sits as a long spine of birch between two engraved channels, with the harbor opening wide at its foot.

Each contour is a separate laser-cut sheet, stacked by hand and engraved, with acrylic glass over the relief and a solid Baltic birch frame in Dark or Light.

Eight million daily crossings over and under this water, and almost nobody looks at it. This chart is for the ones who do.

The engraving spans the Battery and the bridges, Hell Gate and the Harlem River, Governors and Roosevelt islands, and the piers up both shores. The neighboring boroughs hold their own charts: Brooklyn and Staten Island.

  • 13.5 × 31 in
  • Solid Baltic birch frame in Dark or Light
  • 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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