Day one: Jan. 22, 4 p.m.
Walking down Caf Lane on a Thursday around 4 p.m., I noticed a dark, webbing tower in front of Bobby B’s Cafe. It looked like a ladder connecting up to the second floor of the cafeteria. As I approached, confused, I realized the black tower was made of chairs.
Seven chairs, to be precise, formed a tower that stood at around 12 feet tall. As four guys crowded around the massive construction, they added the final upside-down chair, and they stood back to admire their creation. Many bystanders admired it as well; students took photos, shouted out opinions about the tower and approached to ask questions.
The masterful architects of this tower were four Point Loma Nazarene University students: Chase Collins, a third-year business major; Marcus Delker, a fourth-year finance major; Asher Lawson, a third-year applied health science major and Kaleb Lunde, a third-year accounting major.
I asked the students what inspired the chair stack on the seemingly random day. In a joint interview, the four shared the motivations, process and meaning behind the chair tower.
“We were just on Caf Lane, and we were saying, ‘How can we use our creative juices for good?’” Collins said.
“It was born out of boredom. 4 p.m. Caf Lane activities. Should be in class,” Delker said.
“I just kinda hopped on and put a few things together, and now I’m just trying to make it better,” Lawson said.
“It’s built on the cornerstone. And Caf Lane is the cornerstone of all social endeavors,” Lunde said.
After sharing a few laughs with them, I sat on one of the remaining grounded chairs, excited to people-watch. Caf Lane is already home to some of the best people-watching on campus, but this spontaneous event would give an even better show. Within a few minutes, I already heard people shouting out their reactions to the stack.
“It’s beautiful; it’s art, honestly,” one passerby said.
“Is this guy an architect?” another yelled.
“I wanna kick it,” a third laughed.
A few students stopped to stare and comment on the impromptu creation, and I rushed up to them to ask for their thoughts.
“It should honestly just be glued together and stay here,” Wyatt Thomas, a third-year finance major, said.
“This is so freaking iconic. Whoever made this deserves a PLNU award. I’m shocked it isn’t famous on Fizz [an anonymous campus-based social media app],” Jack Battin, a second-year marketing major, said.
The random seven-chair stack brought together many PLNU students in unified bewilderment and amazement.
Several friends of the builders sat near the tower with me, one of them was Jolie Bush, a second-year child development major. Bush said she has been a part of the friend group for a while and that things like the chair stack were a normal occurrence. She enjoys watching from the sidelines when Collins, Delker, Lawson, and Lunde get into shenanigans.
“It was entertaining, thrilling. It was fun to see my friends being creative,” Bush said. “I think it’s beautiful; we should have more Caf Lane activities like this.”
I wondered how long the tower would last. The four legs of the second chair barely aligned with the base chair’s legs underneath — one of the legs floating on its own entirely. I had no idea the bottoms of the Caf Lane chairs had such traction. They must be pretty old and scratched up, as the texture kept the statue together.
Day two: Jan. 23, 1:30 p.m.
I walked past Bobby B’s Cafe once more, and miraculously, the chairs were still standing. And not only this — there was a second seven-chair tower placed next to the first. Fourteen chairs soared into the sunny sky like two arms reaching upward.
The same four students were balancing the seventh chair on top of the second tower, once again. Collins directed the group on the final details of construction.
“This is doable,” Collins said.
Even more students stopped by the double-feature chair towers, looking like skyscrapers on the lane. I didn’t have time to people-watch this time — I walked to sit across from the stacks, in a seating area closer to the Bond Academic Center.
The fall: Jan. 23, 1:45 p.m.
I’m lounging in the sun, writing in a notebook, when crash. I already know where to look. The chairs scatter across Caf Lane like black spiders running for cover.
In seconds, the busy flow of foot traffic dispersed as students rushed over to help pick up the chairs. I smile as I watch bystanders band together to clean up.
The chair towers, born out of the creativity of four college friends, were an invitation — they sparked conversations between strangers. They were a source of quizzical laughter. They were a beautiful moment of distraction from all of the recent stressful events of 2026.
I hope something as mundane as a 21-hour and 45-minute tower of stacked chairs warms you as much as it did me.
Olivia Roberts