Selected projects: fallen trees, new chapters

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 on the 100th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth, along with a time capsule. Almost 100 years later it fell, and we made it into public pieces to be shared with future generations.

When 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, an 8-foot bench and 100 ring bowls for the graduating class. We also made two gateleg pine tables from beams reclaimed during the renovation, and a large conference table from an ash that grew in Hartford’s historic Bushnell Park.

The 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 years, as they did their previous ones.

With 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 butterfly” joint doubles as a power-cord chase.

Denver Public Schools created a campus named for educator Emily Griffith, founder of the Opportunity School in 1916 (“For all who wish to learn”). With kinetic sculptor John King we transformed the lobby with mixed-wood columns, furniture with swooping backs, colorful swaths, murals of flying books and frogs, and a graffiti bench.

For First Reserve’s renovated offices we built a private dining table, a red elm executive conference table and credenza, a large walnut kitchen island, coffee tables and a larger red elm conference table. CPG Architects and DeClerq Office Group brought us onto the project.