Meadors, Inc by Jon Pennington

Meadors, Inc. Charleston, SC Jun. 2016 - Present CAD & CNC Specialist, Designer

My professional career began at Meadors, Inc. in Charleston, South Carolina. The company is a design-build firm divided into multiple “Workshops” that exist both wholly and separately from each other. Those workshops are: - Architecture - Construction - Cabinetry & Millwork - Historic Preservation - Estate Management I primarily work with the Cabinetry & Millwork workshop with a focus on cabinetry design and production. A majority of my time is spent designing, modeling, and creating shop drawings for cabinetry projects. I also spend a good amount of time programming and operating the CNC machine for both cabinetry projects and millwork projects; these include templates for various trim & furniture projects, jigs for curved doors & jambs, and even mortising stiles for custom fixed louvered panels. For our cabinetry projects, we begin with either a rough sketch or idea directly from a client or design intent drawings from an architect or designer. I then create a rough model of the design in the Cabinet Vision program, or as I like to call it “Revit for Cabinets”. Cabinet Vision is a BIM style program that uses families of cabinets created from individual parts. The cabinets can then be sectioned into drawers, shelves, cubbies, and more. The model is then used to create accurate shop drawings to represent exactly what the shop will produce. Where Cabinet Vision comes in handy is that all of the parts of each cabinet exist individually. This means that with the Screen to Machine function, Cabinet Vision can nest parts for production on the CNC machine. Before learning to use the program, each part was drawn individually in AutoCAD, along with any assembly bores, line boring for shelves, and bores for hardware. These individual parts were then nested one-by-one onto sheets to program for the CNC. The woodshop also produces doors, windows, shutters / louvered panels, custom trim, flooring, and various other projects. Again, these typically reach the shop in the form of sketches or design intent drawings from which shop drawings are produced. On-site conditions are measured and the drawings are adjusted to fit. The level of detail shown in the shop drawings allows the client to see exactly what is to be produced and provides all of the information the shop needs to complete the project.

The following is a collection of projects that I have worked on during my time at Meadors.

Warren Street Residence The Warren Street Residence was a kitchen cabinetry project in downtown Charleston. The client reached out to the cabinetry & millwork shop at the recommendation from a previous client. We were provided only with a basic rendering from a different cabinetry shop and a couple of sketches. After meeting with the client and discussing what their overall vision for the space was, we progressed through design development to give them the kitchen they were envisioning. Because the project started in the cabinetry and millwork workshop, we were able to immediately produce shop drawings and CNC ﬁles to build the project using the Cabinet Vision program. The end result of the project was a semi-inset cabinetry look that combined elements of face frame and frameless cabinets. Multiple built-in appliances were used along with custom panels to match the cabinetry fronts. The centerpiece of the project was a large island with a hand-hewn style walnut countertop with an inset stone counter and apron sink, as well as a custom designed hood surround.

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Kitchen Elevation Shop Drawing - Shop Drawings & Production

Bull Street Residence The Bull Street Residence was a cabinetry project in downtown Charleston. The cabinetry & millwork shop was approached directly by the designer with a set of drawings and an interesting scope of work. The centerpiece of the project was a large, round, 8-foot diameter island with curved doors with caning, a dishwasher, and a roll-out countertop with 4 place settings. In addition to the island, the shop produced a large vitrine connecting the family room and dining room. The thin proﬁles of the doors prevented the use of standard euro-hinges so we experimented with a new (at the time) “Air” hinge that would allow a thin door proﬁle while also staying concealed. We also produced some cabinetry for the butler’s pantry using custom cherry pulls that stand out from the off-white cabinetry.

Butler’s Pantry w/ Custom Cherry Pulls - Shop Drawings & Production

Large Round Island (Cherry) & Vitrine (Sapele) - Shop Drawings & Production

Olde Salt Run Residence The Olde Salt Run Residence was a large cabinetry and millwork project in the Ion community in Mt Pleasant. The Meadors interior design department provided design intent drawings for various parts of the project including a large kitchen, ﬂoating bathroom vanities, sliding pocket glass doors, and wainscot paneling throughout. Much of the cabinetry work followed the design intent drawings and consisted of a mixture of face frame and frameless cabinets. The shop provided drawings to the interior design department for the sliding doors and speciﬁed hardware that would allow all 4 doors to slide in tandem.

Main Kitchen Cabinetry - Shop Drawings & Production

Floating Vanity - Shop Drawings & Production

Ofﬁce Cabinets - Shop Drawings & Production

4-Door Tandem Sliding Pocket Doors - Speciﬁcation, Shop Drawings & Production

Laminate Cabinetry We produced various sets of cabinetry for renovations at schools around the Charleston area. These cabinets were typically made from laminate panels with a particleboard core. As the cabinets were simple frameless cabinets with ﬁllers on wall ends, these became easy for us to produce at a low cost as there was no solid material milling or any ﬁnishing that needed to be done.

Art Room Cabinetry - Shop Drawings & Production

Security Desk Wall Framing - Shop Drawings & Production

Bulletprooﬁng Detail - Shop Drawings & Production

High School Security Desk - Shop Drawings & Production

CNC Production Occasionally the shop would be tasked in creating various special millwork projects. These sometimes would require the use of jigs or templates. The following images are a collection of some of the millwork pieces that were produced using the CNC.

CNC Jigs - Various projects

Custom Decorative Bracket - Setup & Milling

Louvered Panel Stiles - Planning, Setup, & Milling

Salice Air Hinge - Special milling proﬁle

Historic Trim Reproduction Occasionally, the cabinetry and millwork shop will assist in the historic preservation of buildings. Some of this work includes replication of part or all of various trim proﬁles that may have previously been made by hand. Using the CNC, we are able to quickly and accurately recreate some of these proﬁles and parts. Sometimes the original millwork has been removed completely. In these instances, we reference images from the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) and use known dimensions from existing work to recreate the trim and millwork as accurate to the original as possible. The photos included are all from the same project, each of the moulding pieces pictured below appear in the photo to the right.

Cross and Diamond Block - Sapele / Poplar

‘Sausage & Pearl’ Rope Moulding - MDF

‘Sunburst’ Column Cap - Detail Recreation via HABS Images

Built-In Sapele Ofﬁce Cabinetry - Shop Drawings & Production

Floating Vanity & Recessed Mirror - Shop Drawings & Production

School-Bus Renovation - Design, Shop Drawings & Production

Outdoor Shower & Pergola - Shop Drawings & Production