furniture from the urban forest
DENVER PUBLIC SCHOOLS
The Denver Public Schools bought a large corporate office in downtown Denver to house all their administrative employees, a high school, a technical college, a cooking school, and an expeditionary school. The campus is named for the late 19th century/early 20th century educator Emily Griffith who founded the Opportunity School in 1916. By 1954 the school had served 10,000 students annually with over 400,000 alumni. Griffith’s motto was “For all who wish to learn.”
We worked with local kinetic sculptor John King to transform the lobby into a place full of vitality and whimsy, installing columns of mixed wood, furniture with swooping backs, colorful swaths, muraled flying books and frogs, a graffiti bench, and much more.
Species: Ash, beech, plum, walnut, maple, tulip poplar, cherry, white oak, red oak
Features: Signs, painted accents, turned legs, wall hangings
Location: Denver, CO
FIRST RESERVE
When First Reserve was renovating their office space City Bench was asked to fabricate a handful of prominent pieces for the new offices: a private dining table, a red elm executive conference room table and credenza, a large walnut kitchen island, coffee tables, and a larger red elm conference table. It was a great use of urban salvaged wood and the clients were very open to some interesting live edge designs. CPG architects and DeClerq office group brought us on the job and the pieces look terrific in the space.
Species: Walnut, red elm
Features: Live edge, waterfall mitered leg, cabinets
Location: Stamford, CT
Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, PA removed several trees while renovating their Sproul Observatory. With the salvaged wood we were able to build an ash top with a binary star design. The plinth tops the concrete base for the original telescope housed in the observatory.
We were asked to create furniture for the new multi-use spaces, including the stools for the plinth top, a coffee table and a meeting room table. All these pieces are walnut with patina’d metal bases. We particularly enjoy the table and the “hollow butterfly” aesthetic element that doubles as a power cord chase.
Species: Walnut
Features: Metal bases, hollow butterfly, decorative inlay
Location: Swarthmore, PA
MISS PORTER’S SCHOOL
When Miss Porter’s School was adding on to its dining hall and student community center a beloved giant beech tree that the school had been nurturing for years finally needed to be removed. City Bench worked with the school to salvage the beech tree and bring to life two 25’L built-in benches with nesting benches underneath, four round coffee tables, an 8’ bench, and 100 ring bowls for the graduating class. We also made two gateleg pine tables from beams we reclaimed during the building’s renovation as well as a large conference table from an ash tree that grew in Hartford’s historic Bushnell park.
- Species: Beech, pine, ash
- Features: Metal bases, builtins, gatelegs, turned legs
- Location: Farmington, CT
NEW HAVEN CITY HALL
We at City Bench are really proud of these pieces. These benches and wall hangings are located in New Haven’s city hall, on the second floor at the south end of the main hall. The wood was salvaged from an oak tree uprooted on the historic New Haven Green during Super Storm Sandy. Dubbed the “Lincoln Oak”, it was planted in 1909 on the 100th anniversary of Abe Lincoln’s birth along with a time capsule. Almost 100 years later it was felled and we made it into public pieces to be shared with future generations. The time capsule was opened for display by the New Haven Historical Society alongside pieces made by local artists using lumber and limbs from the tree.
Species: Red oak
Features: Wall hangings, slatted seats
Location: New Haven, CT
ABBEY OF REGINA LAUDIS
The Abbey of Regina Laudis reached out to see if we could fabricate 20 dining tables for the new refectory they were building as part of a larger renovation. We worked with the sisters to salvage enough cherry logs they had to recently taken down from the property to make all the tables and drawers for the project. It was a terrific use of the wood and a pleasure for us to work on such a meaningful project for the women of the Abbey. We hope they use these tables for the next 50 years as they did their previous tables.
Species: Cherry
Features: Drawers, through tenons, bridle joints
Location: Bethlehem, CT
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