residential lobbies, retail frontages, and upper-floor office suites without losing the thread of its character. Burlington's appetite for that kind of continuity finds a natural partner in Black Limba's inherent range—the way its heartwood moves from light yellowish gold into grey and nearly black veining means a single flitch can carry both warmth and contrast, offering designers the tonal breadth that Buffalo's more uniform palettes sometimes cannot. Where the wood darkens with age, it does so in a way that deepens rather than muddles the original figuring, which matters in Burlington's lakefront properties where natural light shifts dramatically across seasons and a veneer must hold its visual integrity under every condition. This same quality of graceful aging is precisely what draws the restoration-minded builders now moving south into Butchertown, where