Search for Perfect NATO Table Took Months

Mark Wilson, of Hargrove Inc., compares plans for part of NATOs summit table with the real thing. (Robert A. Reeder — The Washington Post) Related Links NATO Summit Set to Begin

By Caryle Murphy
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 23, 1999; Page A34

A table.

How complicated and costly can the humblest piece of furniture get?

Very – as organizers of this week's 50th anniversary NATO summit discovered. But after months of discussion and planning to meet the demands of protocol, aesthetics, available space and ease of assembly, they believe they have created the perfect table.

It is big. It is the biggest thing that cabinetmaker Mark Wilson, 35, has ever built, he said, "other than a house."

Weighing somewhere around 3,000 pounds, the five-sided table made by the Lanham firm Hargrove Inc. measures 145 feet around and stretches 48 feet across at one point.

It also is not cheap. Made of birch plywood, laminated with mahogany-colored Formica, edged in solid cherry molding and decorated with NATO's signature compass star, it cost about $70,000, according to a summit planner.

Although summit planners initially hoped to use the table around which NATO's 12 founding members gathered, that historic piece could not be found. In any event, it probably would not accommodate everyone coming to this summit.

The table is usually the most fussed-over piece of furniture at diplomatic gatherings because of its potential for provoking protocol nightmares. NATO's table was no exception.

"Protocol – who has to be there and how much space do they need? That kind of information has been gained over the years as NATO has had summits," said Thomas E. Gorman, managing director of events and communication on the NATO Summit Task Force. "Everyone is given an equal amount of space. That was written up in a memo of understanding."

The table had to be big enough for NATO's plenary session of 19 leaders tomorrow and for a meeting of 44 delegates from the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council, a NATO affiliate, on Sunday.

Then again, the table couldn't be too big. "One of the first instructions was that it had to fit through the door into the Mellon Auditorium," Gorman said.

Available space in that room ruled out the preferred round shape. The table also had to go with the decor. "Hey, it's a big piece of furniture, so we want it to go with the room," Gorman said.

The space restrictions dictated that the table be a pentagon, Hargrove Senior Account Executive Leonard Piotrowski said. "But we're not calling it that because of the special meaning that word has inside the Beltway," he added. "Thus, the birth of the five-sided table."

No detail, it seems, has gone untended for the table's debut. Its faux mahogany surface has a matte finish so television cameramen need not worry about glare. Messy microphone wires are hidden beneath the table top. Every material used in the table has been treated with a fire retardant.

Employees at Hargrove, which made floats for the last three U.S. presidential inaugural parades, have spent more than 1,800 hours over the past month constructing the table. As of Monday, cabinetmaker Wilson alone had put in 168 hours in the previous two weeks and still was laboring on the table in Hargrove's warehouse-size building room. Wearing plastic safety goggles, he was remaking one of the five sides to meet a last-minute change requested by summit organizers.

The table was built in 20 numbered sections so it can be crated, transported and reassembled in the auditorium after a ceremony today. That assembly, set to begin about 7 p.m., must be done in time for a 9:30 a.m. meeting tomorrow. To speed the process, a full-size drawing showing where each section belongs will be spread out on the floor to guide the workers.

Once the table's 20 sections are fastened together, a vanity skirt will be hung on Velcro strips to hide the table's wooden supports. The table top will be covered by a panel displaying NATO's logo compass star on a field of blue pleated cotton.

But what about that edging in solid cherry. Is the perfect table also beaver-proof?

Table maker Wilson looked nonplussed. Busier than a you-know-what in the past few weeks, he may be the only person in Washington who didn't know about the Tidal Basin predators.

"Yes, it's absolutely beaver-proof," Piotrowski jumped in to assure. "Because I think the Secret Service will kill any beaver that comes around."