#1 School Desk

“The open-shelved desk is inseparable from memories of my first years in formal education. No matter how many times I changed schools in the city’s public school system in my native Rochester, NY, these desks greeted me in every classroom I entered. When I began designing furniture they filtered back into my consciousness, and I realized the open shelf would fit well into the minimal home office since it could fit a laptop, a notebook and several hardcovers or softcovers. After superstorm Sandy, NYC began rebuilding the boardwalk at Coney Island, and the material deemed unusable (the city did a fair bit of recycling the wood) was set to head to the landfill when Bien Hecho was able to acquire it. I knew it would make great leg material for this design. The use of reclaimed materials, always a purposeful choice made out of a desire to reduce waste and keep forests intact, often adds an extra vignette as in the story of the #1 School Desk.” -John Randall