People having a seat in downtown Lake Bluff is not unusual. However, sitting down on two oversized wood chairs is rare, yet now a real opportunity for residents and visitors.
The village placed two 4-by-6 foot Adirondack chairs at the southeast corner of East Center and East Scranton avenues July 27 in the village’s downtown. People can climb up and take a seat on chairs using style invented in the early 20th Century on the East Coast.
“It’s interesting to look at, it’s art, it’s functional,” said Lake Bluff Village Administrator Drew Irvin.
The chairs are the latest creation of Bob Broten, a Lake Bluff resident since 1996. Retired from his job at a chemical company, Broten spends much of his time pursuing a lifelong passion for woodworking. Over the years, Broten has built six full-size boats and today has several Adirondack chairs outside his home.
Those chairs grabbed the attention of Irvin, who happens to live nearby. He recalled seeing similar pieces of art in what he labeled “resort towns” in South Carolina and Tennessee. Irving said he thought they would be a good fit for Lake Bluff and approached his neighbor with the idea.
“He makes such beautiful boats and I had all the faith in the world that he would make fantastic chairs, and he did,” Irvin said.
Obviously, it just takes a second for people to sit down, but creating the chairs is a far more labor-intensive process, starting with acquiring the wood.
Daniel I. Dorfman/for Pioneer Press, Aug. 2, 2023, Lake Bluff, Illinois.
It was not a matter of going to a lumberyard, as Broten used white oak wood, reclaimed when white oak trees in Lake Bluff were lost either from a storm or falling victim to a disease.
“When a big tree has to come down, a lot of times there is usable lumber in that tree,” Broten explained.
Broten located the wood from a friend who owns a small saw mill close to Lake Bluff who happened to have the white oak wood in stock. With the village spending nearly $1,300 for the wood, Broten had the basic material.
“White oak is a traditional boat building wood. It is very durable and it is a great product for the chairs because it is rot resistant and it is wet as well,” he said.
With Broten donating his labor and his time, he started the project earlier this year, mostly working alone in his basement workshop for about four to five hours a day.
Broten describes a process that can be challenging in terms of finding the right pieces of wood, as some have knots or others have an irregular grain. Plus, there is plenty of dust around when the saws are churning.
Once the raw slats were properly in shape, he applied a teak oil finish along some additives that he formulates with varnish and pine tar to complete the process.
After about a month of work on both chairs, they were ready in late July. It required several public works employees to load the chairs — weighing as much as 400 pounds — on a truck and move them to the central business district.
Now that they are in place, Broten speaks of their symbolism.
“They depict leisure and relaxing,” he said.
He said he has received compliments from both friends and strangers on his unusual addition to the village’s downtown tapestry.
For the village, the chairs fulfill one goal of a recent central district downtown planning process by having additional flexible outdoor seating, Irvin said. He said the extra large chairs makes that more interesting.
A second goal is to create attention, especially in this era of Instagram and Snapchat.
“That’s another added value besides that they are beautiful works of art,” Irvin said. “You create the spaces and they will come. That is part of it.”
That second goal is so far being realized, Irvin believes.
“People have sent me pictures that these are fun and posing in the chair,” he said.
The immediate future includes 2-foot stools also made by Broten to be attached to the chairs. Irvin said there is discussion with the Lake Bluff Garden Club about using some flowerpots to adorn the chairs.
They are built to withstand three of the four seasons. Irvin said they will be stored during the winter.
Irvin said other works of art may be coming to other downtown corners.
“I think that is inevitable,” he said.
Overall, Broten thinks the chairs fit in well for the village’s downtown, which can get very busy on Fridays with the farmers markets or during special events.
“I like creating a higher level of craftsmanship,” Broten said. “I think it is a great look for Lake Bluff.”
Daniel I. Dorfman is a freelance reporter with Pioneer Press.
