Students Turn Fallen Campus Trees Into Public Tables

Students work with Professor Joe Trumpey on a conference table surface in the Sculpture Studio at the U-M Stamps School.

Students Turn Fallen Campus Trees Into Public Tables

By Jen Hogan, Photos by Dave Brenner

Students in University of Michigan Professor Joseph Trumpey’s recent Tree to Table class, which included those from the Program in the Environment (PitE) and the Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design, milled logs and worked with wood taken from storm-damaged trees on campus to create new, functional furniture at U-M.

The trees include the legendary Tappan Oak, which had become decayed and was removed from its location near Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library in 2021 for safety reasons. The students also worked with cherry logs from Nichols Arboretum that fell during a July 2023 windstorm.

Our broader community consumes an overabundance of disposable plastic, fast fashion and fast furniture.”

Trumpey has appointments at the School for Environment and Sustainability, PitE and the Stamps School. He has worked on developing the Tree to Table course for several years.

“Our broader community consumes an overabundance of disposable plastic, fast fashion and fast furniture. These are objects that we know little or nothing about, including their sourcing, materials or labor practices,” Trumpey says. “This class asks students to see those goods, understand how many are not sustainable, and work to design and build better goods.”

A student measures wood for projects in the Tree to Table class.

The students researched sustainable forestry and proposed processes for a sustainable studio practice that used the wood. Many students had little or no experience with tools, so much time was focused on building skills.

The students also traveled to Trumpey’s farm, where they milled the wood to prepare it for construction.

The pieces they built will be placed at various locations on U-M’s campus, including the Art & Architecture Building on North Campus. Each table will have a QR code engraved on the top that will link to a website chronicling the full story of each table, from the history of the tree to the final campus location and information about the student team that created it.

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