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

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 3D Wood Map | Laser-Cut Birch Depth Chart

$ 368.00
Size
Frame
24.5 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.

Philadelphia in stacked Baltic birch, 24.5 by 31 inches: the two-river city carved one depth contour per layer, Delaware on one side, Schuylkill on the other.

Philadelphia grew between its rivers and still lives that way. The Delaware carries the working port past Penn's Landing, where the tall ship Moshulu and the cruiser Olympia hold the waterfront's history in place. The Schuylkill runs the recreational side: Boathouse Row's Victorian clubhouses glowing in their lights above the sculls, the crews stroking the same reach they have raced since the 1850s, Bartram's Garden holding the botanical bank downstream. On the chart, the big river's engraved shipping channel and the smaller river's winding course bracket the city grid in birch, the original town plan explained by water.

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

Boathouse lights and river regattas: the city's calmest postcard, carved.

The engraving spans Penn's Landing and the Delaware reach, the Schuylkill from the Art Museum past Boathouse Row, and the confluence at the Navy Yard. Downstream: Delaware Bay.

  • 24.5 × 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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