Now Here's an Idea!

At a workshop on Wednesday morning, about a wayfinding project to improve the city's gateways and signage, Sheena Salvino, executive director of HDC shared something she's been thinking about: street furniture--more benches along Warren Street where shoppers and strollers and dog walkers could stop and set a spell. The particular benches Salvino has in mind are these, created by kids learning carpentry with Linda Mussmann at Time & Space Limited.

The benches in the picture are the ones they created for the train station. The ones for Warren Street should probably be a little shorter.

Salvino's nascent idea is that business owners get a bench like this to set out in front of their shop, gallery, or restaurant, and they paint and decorate it anyway they please to reflect the style and nature of their business. The effect could be street art, with some of the same diversity-in-uniformity appeal as those painted fiberglass animals that were summer installations in so many cities a decade or so ago, but with utility and permanence. The benches could bring together and showcase the carpentry skills of Hudson youth, the talent of our artists and designers, and the entrepreneurial genius of our businesses. Not a bad concept.
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