A 8-foot-tall park bench appeared on Houston Street this week, not to be confused with “the bench” outside American Apparel down the street.

A tribe of behemoths has apparently moved into the city, and is looking for somewhere to take a load off. This 8-foot-tall park bench was found Monday bolted into the median strip on Houston at Suffolk Street in the Lower East Side.

A spokesman for the Department of Transportation said the agency is investigating.

Mysterious 8-foot bench appears on LES [AMNY]

Update: Tod confirms that the bench was installed by Brad Downey.

Downey was in town for a flash recently, but long enough to team up with Mike Wrobel to make and install an 8 ft. high bench on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. He asked me to document it for him, since the lifespan of this type of work is always questionable. Soon after I took these photos, the piece was removed by the DOT. But only after it made the news. Check out the articles in the NY Post, and AM New York. The DOT was nice enough to post flyers notifying the owner of the piece that they could come claim the work within 48 hours, before they scrapped it. I’m sure there wouldn’t be any NYPD representatives present if someone did in fact show up to claim it, none at all. . .

Photo by Tod Seelie

Update: Nobody is claiming it.