This piece was my winning entry in the 2024 U District Green Street Design Competition in Seattle, where the theme was “shelter.” Unlike most of my work, it is made from softwood and assembled by screws. My inspiration for this piece was an old oak tree that provides shade with its canopy and seating with its roots, and it was enjoyed by the community for several weeks before the Green Street event ended and it was relocated to the rooftop garden of a food bank.

The construction of this piece is largely typical of outdoor public furniture, but a few details added complexity to the building process. The X components on each end of the benches are joined with an angled half-lap, and the arc supporting the fabric of the canopy is a bent lamination similar to the legs of my curved leg table. The non-structural branches were cut using a CNC machine and went through numerous redesigns before I settled on a pattern I liked.