Many trees that fall in public parks are dragged to landfills, but some meet a different destiny: They become $6,000 conference tables in tech offices.
At the showroom of West Loop-based furniture designer and manufacturer Icon Modern, a buckeye tree that once stood in Grant Park lives on as a sample of the company's work: distinctive pieces of furniture that tell a story.
That's what drew their first client, Starbucks, which bought products for thousands of stores, and continues to draw hot-shots like Twitter and Goose Island.
“We really geek out over the story of the tree,” Icon Modern owner Rocky Levy said. “Oftentimes, we can look at them and say, 'Here’s where a branch came out, here’s a scar from a nail.'”
Customers — including some of Chicago’s biggest tech firms — love that. They find beauty in the rugged-looking tables made mostly from Chicago-area trees. That the wood was rescued from the city’s garbage only adds to the draw.
