The Cincinnati Enquirer

UC student Adam Koogler (left), sits on a park bench he and other students designed and built. With him is UC professor Sam Sherrill. (Steven M. Herppich photo) | ZOOM |

This is a tall (tree) tale.

This summer, 13 wooden benches, made from trees that grew in Cincinnati public parks, were designed and built for use in Roselawn Community Park on Seymour Avenue.

They're great benches, but you'd never guess the number of people behind each one:

• The project was the idea of Nancy Sunnenberg of the Roselawn Community Council, chairwoman of the council's Beautification Committee.

• Lumber for the benches came from trees felled and sawed by the Cincinnati Park Board (CPB). Kurt Kastner of the Cincinnati Park Board, who arranged for the lumber to be donated to the project, oversees CPB efforts to harvest urban timber for public projects.

• The benches were designed by University of Cincinnati College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning (DAAP) students in Jim Postell's furniture design course. Students were eager to work with urban forested lumber - red and white oak, osage orange and a little cherry, Postell says.

Students outside the class also designed and built benches. The project involved first-year to graduate students studying architecture, interior design and industrial design.

• Keep Cincinnati Beautiful, led by Terry Robinson, provided cash awards for winning student designs. First prize, $250, went to Travis Wollet; second-prize, $150, to Nathan Sunderhaus.

• The Cincinnati Recreation Commission is arranging for the benches to be installed in Roselawn. Helping in this area is Carole Douglas, service area coordinator and director of the Bond Hill Recreation Center.

• Sam Sherrill, DAAP professor and author of Harvesting Urban Timber (Linden Publishing; $23.25 from harvestingurbantimber.com), was involved with the project as part of his campaign for making better use of urban trees.

"I hope we can continue the project every year," Sherrill says. "I'd like to expand the effort area-wide. Instead of (public art) pigs, we'd work on public furniture."

Project information: jim.postell@uc.edu and samuel.sherrill@uc.edu.