UC Designers Craft Award-Winning Benches but Have No Plans to Rest on Their Laurels

Downed trees have new life thanks to ongoing efforts by University of Cincinnati teachers and their students. 

Recently, James Postell, associate professor of design, and Sam Sherrill, associate professor of planning, went to work with a small group of students to produce 10 benches for Roselawn Community Park on Seymour Avenue.  Three of the benches have already been installed in the park, and the rest will be installed in the near future.

Even though all the benches aren’t yet placed in the park, the design-and-build crew is already receiving recognition.  Of the many volunteer-service projects just honored during a banquet by Keep Cincinnati Beautiful, the UC project won first-place in the “Small Projects” category..

“The students and everyone involved have worked hard, many for no academic credit,” said Postell.  “While we were building the benches, we had red oak, white oak, osage orange and cherry on the college’s terrace and at hallway entrances.  Students worked at night and on weekends to complete their designs,” he added.

And while it may sound like a lot of hard work, the efforts will continue, according to Postell who says he and Sherrill have committed to creating benches for the new Theodore M. Berry International Friendship Park on Eastern Avenue.  “About five students have already come up to me saying they want to participate next time as independent studies,” explained Postell.

The current downed-trees-to-furniture project is an outgrowth of efforts several years ago by Sherrill, author of "Harvesting Urban Timber," and Michael Romanos, professor of planning, to salvage and reuse downed trees.  Participating in the latest project have been  students Travis Wollet, Nathan Sunderhaus, Ben Meyer, Chris Block, Matt Mutchler, Ann Kessler, Logan Allen, David Char, Faris AlMazrouei, Jon Stollenmeyer, Kristen Bluhm, Stephanie Kroger, Suchi Sharma, Sanjit Roy, Christopher Corbett, David Fedyk, Lara Hay, Tyler Kobick, Gamal Prather and Adam Koogler.

Other participants were Nancy Sunnenberg of the Roselawn Community Council; Carole Douglass, director of the Bond Hill Recreation Center; Kurt Kastner of the Cincinnati Park Board, who arranged for the UC College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning group to receive the downed lumber; and Terry Robinson of Keep Cincinnati Beautiful.