Austin lumber company turning downed East Texas cypress trees into benches for new wishbone bridge

AUSTIN (KXAN) — The Longhorn Dam Pedestrian Bridge is nearly completed, and millions of people will walk by or stop for a rest on the wooden benches that will be situated along the path. Like the people who will rest upon the benches, the benches themselves have a rich history.

The cypress wood that the “Maraca” benches are made from originally came from East Texas trees, harvested by an urban sawmill in the area, and sent to Austin’s own urban sawmill for the project.

Harvest Lumber Co., located in east Austin, has been working on the art benches for over a year, readying them for a November installation, just in time for the opening of the pedestrian bridge.

The Trail Conservancy, which manages and maintains the Ann and Roy Butler Hike-and-Bike trail, chose Lemmo Architecture and Design through an open call to design the benches, which Harvest is building. Harvest Lumber Co. also harvested and milled the post oak, live oak, and cypress wood that make up 30 other benches along the hike-and-bike trail.

Harvest Lumber Co. co-founders Kris Burns and Andrew Danziger typically work with wood sourced from Austin-area trees that have fallen due to extreme weather, development, or any other reason, with a mission of sustainability and keeping urban wood out of the city’s waste stream. 

Danziger and Burns were both working as woodworkers in Austin when they decided to start an urban sawmill after noticing a lot of trees falling during the drastic droughts in 2011 and 2012. An urban sawmill, as Danziger described, is a business that takes fallen trees in the local area and cuts them up, and turns them into furniture-grade lumber.

Being part of the bench project was a natural fit for Harvest because the sawmill’s sustainability mission aligns well with the city of Austin’s Zero Waste Initiative, Danziger said.

“That means finding the highest and best use for materials,” he said, pointing to a huge slab of wood in Harvest Lumber Co.’s workshop and giving an example, saying, “Arguably, a big slab like that, it can turn into a dining table instead of being mulched.”

Harvest Lumber Co. typically makes custom, fine furniture for businesses and individuals, and rescues high-quality, vintage wood from buildings facing demolition or remodeling.

For example, Harvest recovered wood from Austin ISD’s Anita Ferrales Coy Facility prior to its demolition — that included planks from the gym’s maple wooden floors and fir and pine bleachers, as well as maple from the school’s library bookshelves.

Burns and Danziger have also worked on projects like the Pease Park Troll, Malin, by artist Thomas Dambo, the chef’s counter at L’Oca d’Oro, and the Park Tower Canopy near the Pfluger Pedestrian Bridge in downtown Austin.

Danziger said public-facing projects like those and the Longhorn Dam bridge benches are “such a treat” for him and Burns to create.

“For me, it’s really exciting because a lot of craftspeople will get into the realm of doing like, high-end residential furniture, and so you can make a really nice dining table, but then maybe only ten people will ever get to sit at that table,” Danziger said. “And so for us, it’s such a treat that we get to make this furniture, and then, like our friends and any citizen in the city can sit on it. And that’s really awesome because it’s available to everybody… For us, the public projects are really exciting and they’re quite complex.”

Danziger said working with The Trail Conservancy on the benches has been a smooth process and a good fit, because it also prioritizes sustainability.

“The Trail Conservancy is like driving these types of decisions where they want to use local wood, like they’re the ones that make that the prompt,” he said. “And so they have sustainability in their minds in that they’re telling designers to design around that. And so for us, we’re excited that they believe in our mission.”

The benches’ designs honor the neighborhood’s Hispanic roots, history, and culture, according to The Trail Conservancy.

Thirty-one benches total will be installed along the wishbone bridge, and each of them is available for dedication through the Conservancy’s adopt-a-bench program.