Bus benches, aluminum picnic tables and steel trash barrels seldom command much respect from the public they are designed to serve. They are defaced with graffiti, carved up, stolen and, in the case of the tables, sometimes converted into ramps for loading vehicles into pickup trucks.
"Municipalities have become very discriminating in their selection of site furniture," said Evan Graves, Glendale's landscape architect. "They are willing to spend more up front in capital improvements to have things last. A private developer who builds a shopping center and sells it to somebody else is not really concerned if furniture starts disintegrating in three years."
City benches, for instance, should be comfortable to sit on, but not so comfortable that they invite overnight guests, said Robert Cardoza, an Orange County design consultant. He suggests that benches have backs, which allow users to relax, but also have dividers in the seat to
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