Meet Our Alumni
Paul Kruger

Paul Kruger

Bank Street School for Children '93

The biggest skill I learned from Bank Street was to think and understand the world differently; not only the core values the school teaches but the confidence and belief in yourself and belief in the impossible to make anything happen.

Paul Kruger, SFC ’93, attended art schools throughout his early life, including the specialized fine art high school LaGuardia Arts, later earning his BFA at The School of Visual Arts in lower Manhattan. In 2008, Paul began to revisit the path along the Hudson River, seeing seas of industrial man-made New York City driftwood left for waste. He became enthralled with the possibilities of where the pieces came from, what they were in their past lives, and what he could transform them into. He began recycling the driftwood into sculptures. As he fine-tuned his craft, he began to take on bigger projects in 2012, making furniture, tables, and fine sculptures from fallen trees across the nation. He paired the natural wood with contemporary steel bases, forming a new collection. From childhood swords to organically shaped sculptural furniture, the designs of Fallen Industry, Kruger’s company, come from seeing new purpose and beauty in what would otherwise have been discarded or destroyed.