Trent University alumni starting to reclaim a past that’s been trashed

Just last year, furniture maker Rob Tuckerman pushed past old mattresses and fibreglass insulation to pull, from a dumpster at Trent University, iconic wooden chairs – known as the Ant and Series 7 – by the Danish great Arne Jacobsen. Dumpster diving was something Tuckerman did not exactly relish. At 58, he is educated as a biologist and has enjoyed an extensive career illustrating books for the likes of David Suzuki. But he is also a passionate Trent alumnus, and has been doing whatever it takes to salvage at least part of the Ontario university’s vast collection of mid-century furniture, which has been trashed for decades. That same day, in the freezing cold, Tuckerman fashioned a slide from old mattresses and eased out of the dumpster a 1960s wood-frame couch that had been designed by Toronto architect Jack Diamond with the Muller and Stewart furniture studio, and showcased in a Habitat suite at Expo 67. Read more...