Seat Design Inspired by History

Using reclaimed wood from a historic fallen oak tree on campus, RIT Industrial Design students designed 10 seats to commemorate the 50th anniversary of RIT calling Henrietta, N.Y., home. RIT moved from downtown Rochester to its current location in 1968, with the oak tree standing at the campus entrance until being toppled by a 2017 windstorm.

The seat design was a winning concept from the fifth iteration of T-Minus 151, the Industrial Design program’s annual design blitz in which students have one week to complete a sponsored project. The seats were installed in Fountain Park near Global Village on RIT’s campus.

“We came up with a seat design that was a cement support for big slabs (of wood),” said Wyatt Coe, one of the RIT Industrial Designers who worked on the project. “They stand tall and metaphorically make a forest from the tree while displaying this wood that has a lot of significance to the campus.”