Throughout the entire Vancouver Olympics, I never noticed the podium design. But now that I’m seeing these photos, I have to say they’re absolutely beautiful. Though I have to imagine some of the Olympians probably had initial concerns standing on them.

They were designed by the team of James Lee and Leo Obstbaum. The Western red cedar and Douglas fir wood was donated by various organizations from across British Columbia and fashioned into shape by newly trained wood workers in Vancouver.

There’s plenty more photos of the podium and the wooden trays used for presenting the medals at mocoloco.com.