Furniture from the urban forest
Each year millions of grand, historic trees come down to weather, development and disease. We intercept them and craft one-of-a-kind furniture embedded with a story for generations.
Our story
The urban tree canopy is a vast and overlooked resource. Each year millions of these grand, historic trees come down across the country due to weather, development and disease.
City Bench works with cities, towns, arborists, institutions, homeowners, interior designers, tree wardens, architects, schools and many others to intercept this valuable resource and transform it into uniquely handcrafted furniture, embedded with a story for generations.
Join us on our adventure in the wilds of the urban forest.
City Bench Process · 2:31
How can we help?
Whether you have a tree with a story, a room waiting for a table, or a project that needs local wood, we’ll help you find the right path.
We pick up the logs, mill and dry the wood, and build heirlooms from the tree you loved.
Tables, benches and casegoods designed with you and built by hand in our Higganum barns.
Numbered, book-matched slabs up to 20 feet long, lumber, and custom milling by the hour.
Boardroom tables, counters and feature walls for offices, campuses and museums.
Donor gifts, awards, deal toys and disc prints from meaningful trees.
The collection
Every one of our handcrafted pieces comes to life through a conversation. Browse by category, then reach out to start yours.
Selected projects
A few of the trees we have given a second life, and the places they live now.
These benches and wall hangings sit on the second floor of New Haven’s City Hall, at the south end of the main hall. The wood came from an oak uprooted on the historic New Haven Green during Superstorm Sandy. Dubbed the “Lincoln Oak”, it was planted in 1909…
Read the storyWhen Miss Porter’s School expanded its dining hall and student center, a giant beech the school had nurtured for years finally had to come down. We salvaged it and built two 25-foot built-in benches with nesting benches underneath, four round coffee tables,…
Read the storyThe Abbey asked us to fabricate 20 dining tables for its new refectory. Working with the sisters, we salvaged enough cherry logs, recently taken down on the property, to make all the tables and drawers. We hope the sisters use these tables for the next 50…
Read the storyWith wood salvaged during the renovation of the Sproul Observatory, we built an ash top with a binary-star design. The plinth caps the concrete base of the original telescope. We also created walnut stools, a coffee table and a meeting table, where a “hollow…
Read the storyWhere we work
All our projects start on the eastern slope of East Rock Park, in a mill yard above the spot where the Olmsted Brothers planted their nursery in the 1880s.
180 Park Rd, Hamden, CT 06517 · by appointment The mill
Every piece is crafted by hand in our woodshop, finishing studio and kiln in central Connecticut, with a showroom down the street.
73 Maple Ave, Higganum, CT 06441 · by appointment The shopPartial client list
From campus trees to corporate boardrooms, we have built for institutions across the Northeast and beyond.
The makers
Brothers Ted and Zeb Esselstyn founded City Bench to turn waste streams into value streams. With shop manager Ben Komola and sculptor Mike Donovan, they build every piece by hand.
Start the conversation
Tell us about your tree, your space or the piece you imagine. We’ll help you figure out what it can become.
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