Our Story New
All our furniture was headed to the dump.
City Bench grew out of our passion for building beautiful objects with meaning and a story. It also grew out of a reverence for the trees that line our streets, fill our public spaces, and enliven our campuses. Those trees represent our shared space and generations of common stories—they are also a vital and overlooked resource.
There are over 70 billion trees in U.S. metropolitan areas. New Haven removes more than 600 trees each year, New York City fells 7,000, and hundreds of thousands more come down across the country. Most of these grand, historic trees are relegated to the landfill, ground into mulch, or chopped into firewood each year.
We extend the life left in those trees by building uniquely hand-crafted furniture that tells their stories. Community and connection to place are built into everything we create—whether that community is a big city, a small town, or a much-loved school. Our pieces have a “birth certificate” describing the tree’s origin, significance, and story. Our aim is to build a meaningful and lasting enterprise, which creates positive environmental and social change, and contributes to the vitality of the communities in which we operate.
Meet Our Team
TED ESSELSTYN is an artist and furniture maker. For the past 15 years his art has explored the
whimsy and fascination of childhood, while boldly experimenting with materials to enliven children’s spaces in public libraries throughout the Northeast, as well as nature centers, hospitals and hands-on children museums. Inevitably, the goal of his installations is to create “a sense of place” and tell a story that resonates with children and adults alike. It was while working on the Connecticut Trash Museum exhibit depicting our increasingly “throw away society,” that the idea for creating handcrafted furniture from street trees was inspired. Connecting his clients to their pieces while embedding a natural story in them became the main goal. Street trees, considered waste by most municipalities, were the solution. Here was a way to “upcycle” a perceived waste product while creating sustainable, unique, and meaningful furniture. It also gave people a story to tell and tied them to “a sense of place.” City Bench is the result.
Ted lives with his wife, three children, two cats, and two dogs in Higganum, CT.
ZEB ESSELSTYN has had a variety of incarnations. He has been a builder, coordinated rock concerts, managed book tours, worked in the advertising business and on film sets, and he led trips for Outward Bound and the National Outdoor Leadership School. He is a storyteller committed to the idea of turning waste streams to value streams through collaboration.
Zeb is a graduate of The Journalism School at Columbia University and lives with his family in New Haven, CT.
BEN KOMOLA is the youngest among us—but also the strongest, the smartest and the most all around burly. We are thankful he found his way to our shop.
Ben came to City Bench in 2013 and quickly made himself invaluable. He is our shop manager and leads all fabrication. Ben graduated from Southern Connecticut State University in 2011 where he majored in sculpture and minored in metalsmithing. His material of choice was steel and animal bone to create unique creatures. Wood is a more recent medium for Ben, but he has a natural feel for the material and has quickly become an extraordinary craftsman. For two years after graduation from Southern he worked with an art conservator specializing in the rehabilitation of monuments around Connecticut, and the country, where he worked with cement, bronze, and stone.
When not at the shop Ben spends time turning wrenches on project cars. (Ted went for a ride in his ’71 Chevy Nova muscle car creation…once.)
GRAEME STASYSHYN came to City Bench in the fall of 2015 and quickly became an integral part of the team. Having grown up within the building trades he has a natural affinity for tools and problem solving. In 2008, Graeme founded Natural Selection Concrete, which specialized in architectural concrete, environmental sustainability, and employing local businesses. He sold the business in 2013 to a large concrete studio in Connecticut and moved to our neck of the woods to serve as a production manger and consultant for the new business. When his commitments were done he went looking for other challenges and that is how we crossed paths.
Graeme received his Bachelors in Media Arts & Design from the Pratt Institute. He is also a lifelong practitioner of art and music and keeps his drum set in the living room.