School Furniture Blog

Last week, the house approved the 21st Century Green High-Performing Public School Facilities Act, H.R. 3021, legislation to make schools greener, and improve conditions for those with environmentally linked health problems. The bill passed by a vote of 250-164. This bill ensures that 90 percent of the funds allocated will be directed towards the purchase of greener furniture, such as Greenguard certified furniture. Greenguard is rapidly becoming the standard in "green school" furniture, with many manufacturers providing a wide selection of Greenguard certified chairs, school desks, activity tables, and more. As the green segment of school and church furniture continues to grow, companies such as Worthington Direct strives to expand their selection of green furniture for environmentally and health conscious schools.

Many of Virco’s products, such as the Metaphor series, and Telos series, as well as the classic Virco series chair desks’ tops are made entirely of Virco’s proprietary Fortified Recycled Wood to help improve the amount of reclaimed materials used in manufacturing. For more Virco products that use green materials such as Fortified Recycled Wood, visit Worthington Direct.

Bretford, Manufacturing, Inc. (NeoCon Showroom #330), leading supplier of technology and media furniture that improves how people work and learn, is transforming its showroom for the NeoCon World’s Trade Fair 2008 to illustrate how its carts, tables, workstations and other products are being used throughout higher education, library and corporate environments. NeoCon also serves as the official launching pad for Bretford’s new line of RHOMBII™ training tables. Further, showroom visitors can see a demonstration of BretfordCommons™, the company’s new partner extranet site, and will have the opportunity to learn more about Bretford’s GREENGUARD-certified products and other environmental milestones.

Bretford’s stunning 5,100 square foot permanent showroom in Chicago’s Merchandise Mart will have a 1950s/1960s theme with furniture upholstered in cowhide, vinyl and other fabric patterns to recapture the era and personify the early days of Bretford. The vintage style choices also demonstrate the limitless ways to design and finish Bretford furniture to enhance any learning, meeting or work area.

“Our showroom theme represents Bretford’s longevity and expertise in the commercial furniture industry – the result of six decades of hard work and being in business,” explained Mikel Briggs, president of Bretford Manufacturing, Inc. “The application vignettes provide true examples of how Bretford furniture can outfit a school or meeting space to accommodate the latest technologies and create workspaces that are modular, comfortable and environmentally-friendly.”

RHOMBII Training Tables The new RHOMBII training tables make any workspace truly reconfigurable. With built-in power and data modules as well as easy mobility and storage, the new tables quickly adapt to the needs of any higher education or training environment. Perfect for both traditional and contemporary spaces, the RHOMBII training tables are universal in nature. They can be placed in virtually any formation depending on the size, style and needs of the gathering, then easily folded and stored out of the way or moved into other locations. The tables will be available for order in August through Herman Miller North American dealerships and shipping in Q3 2008.

Other product lines highlighted in the Bretford showroom include Plus soft seating sofas and chairs with ProBax® seating technology, the sophisticated Ithaca library system, modular Free Evolve workstations, Here high-efficiency tables, mobile boards and rail systems, and the elegant yet high-tech Tru conference tables. By complementing these lines with Bretford’s mount and cart accessories — to support technologies such as flat panels, projectors and laptops –Bretford becomes a one-stop resource for commercial furniture solutions.

Worthington Direct is an authorized dealer for all quality Bretford products.  Visit www.worthingtondirect.com today and see a variety of Bretford overhead projector tables, computer workstations, computer tables, flush wall mounts, laptop storage carts, projection screens and booktrucks.

continue reading

For decades, schools across America chose earlier generations of classroom furniture with hard plastic seats, backrests and work surfaces because of their remarkably colorfast, stain-resistant and chip-resistant qualities. Unfortunately, the durability benefits of hard plastic chairs were offset by widespread seating comfort issues and universally poor stacking.

Until now.

Conceived by award-winning designers Peter Glass and Bob Mills, Telos continues the Virco tradition of product durability while incorporating important ergonomic benefits to set a new standard of comfort and support for mid-priced hard plastic seating. All Telos models are certified according to the stringent GREENGUARD(r) for Children and Schools Program for indoor air quality.

The seats, backs and work surfaces in Telos products are made from Virco’s proprietary Fortified Recycled Wood(tm) hard plastic. Furniture made with Fortified Recycled Wood is highly sustainable due to its long service life. And when ultimately withdrawn from service, Fortified Recycled Wood components are fully recyclable through Virco’s pioneering Take-Back Program that helps schools recycle out-of-service furniture. Even more significantly, Virco can process Take-Back items and other post-consumer materials in its own factory for the Fortified Recycled Wood used in Telos products. By extending the useful life of out-of-service furniture materials that would otherwise go to a landfill, Fortified Recycled Wood and Take-Back make a unique contribution to "closing the recycling loop" in the classroom furniture industry.

Telos is the first hard plastic furniture collection to include 4-leg chairs that form a 10-high truly vertical stack. Moreover, model N318 4-leg chairs can be stacked 10-high and moved on Virco’s model HCT789 and HCT4 chair trucks. The Telos product line includes: 4-leg chairs with four seat heights; a selection of 4-leg combo units with two work surface sizes, an optional bookrack and an optional backpack hanger; two adjustable task chairs, one of which has a reduced shell size and a shorter adjustment range for smaller users; and an adjustable lab stool.

All of the quality products manufacturer by Virco can be purchased through their authorized dealer, Worthington Direct at http://www.worthingtondirect.com.

<a href="http://www.ghinmeca.com/ ">Global Index Directory</a>

Continue reading

A unique design project implemented by Stevens & Wilkinson Stang & Newdow, Inc. for Kennesaw State University’s new Social Science classroom building has not only been well received by both faculty and students, but has also achieved Silver LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design; there are four levels – Certified, Silver, Gold, Platinum) certification. Stevens & Wilkinson Principal Bill Clark, AIA, LEED AP, made the announcement.

Kennesaw State University, established in 1963, is located in Cobb County on a landscaped 240-acre campus and is the third-largest university in the state, with more than 20,000 students (1,700 from overseas). The campus is about 35 miles northwest of downtown Atlanta.
The five-story, 164,000 square-foot classroom building houses more than 40 classrooms and office space for five academic departments (Communications, History & Philosophy, Political Science & International Affairs, Psychology, and Sociology) within the College of Social Science. Interior spaces include a 300-seat auditorium, 110-seat film classroom and a large indoor student plaza with access to an exterior covered porch.

Previously the classrooms and offices for the Social Sciences were housed in different buildings across campus minimizing collegial interaction between students and faculty. The new building has consolidated the classrooms, and departmental and faculty offices into one central teaching facility.
LEED-certified buildings have demonstrated energy conservation and address concerns for site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality. The Social Science classroom building achieved Silver LEED Certification after complying with requirements of the LEED Green Building Rating Systems, a nationally accepted benchmark established by the U.S. Green Building Council.
“The facility is not only visually appealing, but also energy and water usage/costs are significantly reduced and it’s an overall healthier interior environment for both students and faculty,” Clark said.
“Sustainability has become an important feature in any academic setting,” said KSU Assistant Vice President for Facilities John Anderson. “Having a LEED-certified facility has had a positive impact on the local community and reinforces the message that our university has a vested interest in creating environmentally-friendly buildings.”
The exterior palette was designed to blend in with the surrounding environment and buildings. One innovative design feature was developing comfortable student study areas on the north and south sides of the building – normally the kind of space that is classified as unassigned circulation space. The university, however, wanted this space developed to foster a collegiate atmosphere where students and faculty could interact other than in a classroom.

There are several large (+1,100 square feet) departmental research centers in the building designated for various long-term research projects (18-36 months). Classroom furniture is flexible and modular and conducive for group projects and discussion. Most classrooms also have wireless technology.
Clark added that the auditorium was also unique due to its horseshoe shape which allows for 175 fixed seats and another 125 loose seats on a flat floor that can be utilized for other purposes besides seating, e.g., exhibits, student job fairs, mock trials and small performing groups. Continue reading