Custom Office Furniture

The "bucket list"....one hundred things to see/experience/become before you die. Do you have one? Do you need one? Each year, I check a few things off my bucket list, and add a few more. Some things are highly unlikely. For instance: "Become President of the United States".

But what if....what if you wished for something wild and in spite of the odds and obstacles it happened?

I come from a family that loves baseball. As a kid, my parents ignited that passion by taking my brother and I to the Angels games. This was "back in the day" when Bobby Grich, Nolan Ryan, the great Rod Carew and many, many others played for Angels. My grandma, who turns 96 in less than three weeks still watches "her team" play every time they are on TV. (Full disclosure: Grammy now lives in Arizona, so she is a Diamondbacks fan now...but that's a whole other blog.)

At any rate, I grew up loving baseball, and watching certain baseball milestones are on my bucket list.  For instance:

• Angels win World Series - check October 2002...saw it with my own eyes!!Gotta' love a comeback story!

• See World Series Trophy in person - check July 2010 Fanfest...and I've got the photo to prove it.

I checked the most recent items off my list occurred yesterday and here's the adventure:

Attend All-Star Game want (need) tickets. Tickets confirmed July 8...work calendar clear! Oh wait...shortlisted for an office furniture services bid, presentation on July 13 in the afternoon...no problem, I'll bring a change of clothes. Customer running a bit late...no problem! Presentation done, clothes changed, on road...no traffic...this is an epic gift from the traffic gods! Pick up husband, grab tickets, grab snacks, set tickets down and head to game. Yep, I set the tickets down!!!!!!!! When did I realize this? One mile from the stadium! Crap!! Head home in traffic, pick up tickets and head back to stadium. Cannot access parking in stadium, head to off-stadium lot, pay $20...no spots in lot. My sweet and resourceful husband, spots tailgaters and convinces them to let us park under their awning (meaning they can't leave until we leave.) Walk with crowd to stadium...jaywalk...cops whistle and yell, but a bunch of people follow us, and they can't catch all of us. Make it to seats, with husband, with snacks and with marriage intact. Now surrounded by cool people in 85 degree heat. Watch MLB's greats put aside their normal rivalry and show their stuff. That is enough for me! But wait, there's more....in the 7th inning, Torii Hunter is at bat and FOX cuts away to a crowd shot...and well, my sweet husband and I were on TV (a secret item on my bucket list.) How do we know? We started getting phone calls and text messages from family and friends who knew we were at the game...and the tailgaters who let us park under their awning? As soon as we returned to our car, we were greeted with "Dude...you guys were on TV...we saw you!!!! Seriously!!!"

Two wild and secret things on my bucket list, DONE!!  I've got a new item on my bucket list..."win lottery"...you just never know!!

Cheers!!

On Tuesday, June 16th, we had what is now our annual Tangram Tuesday Dinner During Neocon (the commercial interior design event of the year) at Socca Restaurant.   Roger and his team, as requested, cook and provide as though it’s the best family dinner you’ve attended.  Needless to say, we had a great dinner with customers that were more like family than not.  Customers that work with Tangram Health+Space, Tangram Studio and Tangram were treated to a great meal. As I heard numerous times throughout the evening, the energy in the room was awesome. There were 52 of us in total and for me, the best part of Neocon, was our Tangram Family Dinner at Socca.

Old friends became better friends and lots of acquaintances became friends.  When my dad and I were running On-Site Fabricare (which specialized in refurbished office furniture), one of the great qualities of the company was how it “felt like family.”  I know that we all say that that is how we would like it at our place of employment.  I know that I say it quite often working at Tangram and although my dad is no longer with me to share the family experience, for one night lots of folks who work with Tangram got to feel and experience the Tangram Family.

On my recent trip to Neocon I was introduced to Sensitile - a Detroit, Michigan based manufacturer of innovative surface materials that dynamically respond to light.

They had this really cool material call “Jali” - which was "inspired by traditional Indian stone screens" that I brought back to Charlotte to inspire her and our team on upcoming projects! It uses the daylight and ambient light to power movement around it to create this dazzling rippled affect!

I can't wait to apply this to one of our custom office furniture solutions!

The following is a guest post from Paula Christiansen on her first day at NeoCon.  When she is not selling custom office furniture with our Tangram Studio team, she is educating the commercial interior design community on the architectural products offered by Tangram Interiors.

I was anxious and excited to start the day at 7am.  I didn’t know what to expect as about 100 DIRTTBags gathered at the Hotel 71 on Wacker St for the annual DIRTT training and meeting session.  It was a great day.

Mogens was inspiring, as always, in his typical "colorful" way, followed by announcements of what’s new with the latest software released, upcoming product releases, sales updates and forecasts for 2010-2011 and strategies.  The afternoon was a session called "Thrills with Drills."  We were divided up into about 10 teams of 10 people each and handed power tools (grunt grunt)!  We were given a set of plans with an office design layout and a pile of stick built DIRTT product and a stop watch and someone yelled “go”!  We built a small office about 4’ x 4’ square about 5’ high, including power.  Each wall was different and we had to read the plan elevations to exactly match where all the tiles went, etc.  What fun!  And guess who’s team won? Yep, you guessed it.  My team, along with David Morgan from Tangram!  We made our local DIRTT reps, Donna Shirely and Mike Taylor proud.

Following this exciting activity, we walked to the new DIRTT showroom at 325 N. Wells Street for a cocktail party reception and sneak peak of what the world will see at Neocon. Wow, is all I can say. You MUST get over to the showroom to see it and bring as many people with you as you can. It is amazing.  Photos from my fabulous day and the showroom are on Facebook.

Back in the 80’s there was this pivotal work published in the Harvard Business Review by Felice N. Schwartz, called Management Women and the New Facts of life, in which she called for women in management with families to make choices between either being on the career track or on the mommy track (she is credited with coining that phrase).

"It's an illusion, she said, to think that you can have it all."

Well, I remember hearing lots of intense opinion over the article, either for or against. It was volatile, but she did have a point that needed to be said then, and pioneered the idea of companies making their cultures more family-friendly. It was received as an all-or-nothing call, but really what she was saying was beyond the obvious.

"It's an illusion," she said, "to think that you can have it all. If what you want is to focus on your career and compete for the top, then you're going to have to spend less time with your children - a trade-off that many men have been making for decades, and not always happily. Conversely, if you want to make raising your children the highest priority, then you're going to have to accept some impact on your career, at least temporarily."

Jim Moriarty, CEO of the Surfrider Foundation, wrote a great article at the opening of the April 2010 edition of Making Waves, their member newsletter. Jim and the Foundation are friends of Tangram and our Studio did their offices in San Clemente with custom office furniture that was designed for their unique culture. He used the example in the environmental movement of being ‘in’ or ‘out’.

“When we force things into clean, binary categories, we may win a small battle but lose the war. It makes it more difficult to create great shifts in society, and in this case, move toward an environmentally conscious lifestyle. Once we take the time to understand something, we start to recognize the nuances.”

The either-or paradigm is called the Sucker’s Choice in the book Crucial Conversations.

“What makes these Sucker’s Choices is that they’re always set up as only two options available. It’s the worst of either/or thinking. The person making the choice never suggests there’s a third option that doesn’t call for unhealthy behavior.”

The question better could be “how can I have it all?”, or “how can I dial up or dial down the elements in my life to achieve the balance I need?” It really is a question of degrees. What can I do or what do I need to get more of what I want in my own life?

There was an explosion after Ms. Schwartz’s article that prompted degrees of reform, the benefits of which are still being felt today. So after the hard stance, the process of understanding and nuance began and other possibilities fleshed out into new practices that made the culture of organizations more relevant.

So, either you take the binary stance and then you move to understanding and nuance or you start with understanding and nuance? Just kidding. Stay open to possibility. This is a very current topic!

Main Entry: door

Pronunciation: ˈdȯr
Function: noun
Usage: often attributive
Etymology: Middle English dure, dor, from Old English duru door & dor gate; akin to Old High German turi door, Latin fores, Greek thyra
Date: before 12th century

1: a usually swinging or sliding barrier by which an entry is closed and opened;
also: a similar part of a piece of furniture
2: DOORWAY
3: a means of access or participation : OPPORTUNITY [opens new doors] [door to success]
— door·less -ləs adjective
— at one's door : as a charge against one as being responsible [laid the blame at our door]



Ironically when I looked up "door" in the Webster Dictionary one of the definitions was an opportunity. Which is a good way to look at our most recent custom office furniture project, an opportunity to create something new. A client came to us with the typical request for an 8' x 8' workstation. The usual challenges were inherent in the request: two monitors, shelf, cockpit surface, 60" high panels. Then came a request for a door. Sure it seems easy enough. Think of how many successful doors we pass through every day, the doors to our homes, office, the coffee shop, the restaurant, every time we use the bathroom there are multiple doors. Armed with the confidence from the door we had create for SCAN Health Plan we said, "Yes! We can create a door."

So we researched every sliding door in Southern California and Northern Maine (Jeremy's domain). The mountain to climb got a lot steeper when our client asked for no upper track, or lower track on the ground to guide the door, and it had to be smooth and refined feeling. How do we create a door in four weeks with off the shelf parts without a track system that is smooth and refined. We surmised that the success would all be in the tolerances and the wheels or bearings used in the doors.

We set out on an exhaustive search for wheels/bearings. Jeremy and Brad concocted a detailed set of Z brackets and U channels to allow the door to slide and have the structure & rigidity required so that the door wouldn’t roll off into the aisle way. Again back to the wheels or bearings. Jeremy found a pair of his wife's roller blades in the garage and took them apart to see if the wheels would work. Low and behold the wheels were smooth and perfect with and amazing bearing. Where do we find 300 roller blade wheels? On his way back from lunch one day Brad stopped in Wal-Mart to looks for roller blades wheels for our mock up - $2.25 later he was on his way with two new beautiful wheels with that perfect bearing. These became the bottom off the door. In the end we sourced the wheels from an inline skate shop just north of the San Fernando Valley; we cleaned out their stock.

The last item to complete were the vertical interior wheels. They couldn’t exceed .875" in diameter or .25" in height to work with the clearance required. Back to the internet. Brad came across a shower door replacement company. Shower doors roll on very small nylon wheels with a metal hub - perfect!

With wheels in hand, completed engineering drawings, all tolerance and brackets worked out to within 1/16" and our vendor fabricated the prototype. Reckoning day came...the door was to be assembled and tested. Will it work? Did we consider all the tolerances? Will it be strong? Will it stay in line? Will it be smooth? Heck will it even go together? Low and behold it went together and worked! The door slid beautifully, the tolerance were spot on, the unit could self level. We had done it! Except for the horrible clicking/clanking sound of the wheels!!! Ahh the agony!!! Where was the noise coming from? The wheels rubbing? Were the Z brackets acting as a reverberation chamber? How do we solve it? We narrowed it down to the nylon shower wheels. After days of searching for new wheels, sound dampening/absorbing materials we settled on a possible combination of felt, and Velcro to smooth the roll of the wheel and deaden the sounds.  Back to the metal fabricators to re-set up the door. After hours of rolling, listening, removing the door and installing additional sound dampening solutions without success, Marko who works in the shop at our local metal vendor (we always try to create locally manufactured office furniture) came in with an O ring for faucets. We installed these under our shower wheels. It was blissful silence…the door rolled smooth and quiet.

We created a door - an opportunity - fabricated with sport equipment, bathroom hardware, a few O rings and sheet metal.

So today I was truly inspired. One of the best speakers, talking from the heart and with passion, Faye Washington with the YWCA spoke of her efforts to get the new YWCA built.

On a “wing and a prayer” (probably lots of prayers, actually), Faye spoke of her efforts and her teams efforts to get this state of the art facility built not too far from Staples Center. Faced with countless roadblocks and hurdles, but with an unnerving passion and spirit, Faye has truly moved some serious mountains. From the moment she said good morning to the assembled room of Central City Association of Los Angeles members, she had made her way into my heart. She was incredibly infectious that there is no doubt I will be helping her at some point.

Perhaps there is an element of her project that will require custom office furniture, beds or tables such as what Tangram Studio provided for the Midnight Mission, the lounge areas that Tangram can support and service or even commercial flooring from our Flooring Team.  But if not, Faye will still have made a lasting impression on me as well as the other CCA members. Her candor and passion truly inspired me this morning.

Last night was the Calibre Awards. We had a group of 15 that included end users, designers and Tangram Staff in attendance to root on the Tangram Team that was up for 6 total awards. Many hours later, we received…not one award. But judging by the looks on the faces of the 15 of us and the energy we brought into the Hyatt Century Plaza Hotel, there is no doubt that we in fact did win.

William H. Hannon Library
nominated by: AECOM
In no particular order, our first disappointment was not winning for the custom educational furniture solutions that Tangram Studio provided for the William H. Hannon Library at LMU. This was a project we did with AECOM and as library’s go, this is no doubt the finest library in North America. The custom solutions that Tangram Studio in conjunction with AECOM came up with were a 1st place finish by my standards. 



Miller Children's Hospital
nominated by: Taylor Architects
We also fell short with the work we did with Taylor for Miller Children’s Hospital. In addition to the Steelcase furniture we provided, we also supplied the flooring throughout the hospital. This too was a 1st Place finish if I had a vote. The workmanship we provided was outstanding and as healthcare environments go, this facility is warm and friendly and is not the kind of healing facility I remember as a kid. It’s a beautiful installation. 



SCAN Health Plan
nominated by: The Urquiza Group, Inc.
One of the biggest disappointments was not being recognized for the work Tangram and Tangram Studio provided for the Scan Health Plan project. This is one of the first projects in which Tangram Studio added custom office furniture elements to standard Steelcase offerings so as to fulfill the design intent of the Urquiza Group. Manuel Urquiza had a vision for the space that only the industrial designers from Tangram Studio could have made a reality. This too was an awesome installation and given the competition we had for this award, then yes, we should have won in this category as well.


Beachbody
nominated by: Wolcott Architecture | Interiors 
The Beachbody project we worked on with Wolcott Architecture Interiors provided a space that in addition to having a “tight budget,” Tangram Studio provided custom solutions that was as tailored to the space as the pb90x video that Beachbody produces is for getting yourself into great physical shape. If the criteria for this category were minimal budget without sacrificing fit and finish, this too should have been a 1st place winner. 




The National Typewriter Company
nominated by: Shimoda Design Group
When our team of industrial designers from Tangram Studio walked the completed installation at The National Typewriter Company, the comments from our team confirmed the genius that is Shimoda Design. The custom office furniture acted as the perfect back drop to Shimoda’s architectural elements. By all accounts, this too was a 1st place finisher. It’s just that the judges did not agree with my own biased opinion.




HLW
nominated by: HLW International LLP
Working with an almost nonexistent budget, the Tangram Studio team was charged with taking HLW’s existing furniture and adding custom elements so that when HLW moved into its new offices, the existing furniture now had the appearance of having been designed for the new space. The marriage of custom elements modified to fit around and onto beams and existing structures was a well thought out office space design challenge. And a challenge that should have been rewarded with a 1st Place Finish, just not at this year’s Calibre Awards. 


I was reminded throughout the evening that all though we did not win any awards at this year’s Calibre Awards that the best in class and always First Place Finish by my account are the men and women that I get to work with daily. Their efforts are always great; their attitudes are always uplifting and collectively, it’s the best group of folks I’ve ever worked with. It’s a privilege that I get to work with them daily. As my mom would tell me when I was playing baseball in high school and after I personally had a bad game, she was always there to say “you are still number one!” And now I get to say to my team that although we did not win, we are still…number one!

Mitchel had this great idea a few months ago to get our employees to take a break from the busy world of office furnishings and have a Rock Band competition internally for our office. Like all of Mitchel’s “Great Ideas” I’m thinking…”what am I getting myself into?!”

So having no idea on how to play the game, what equipment we needed, or how to make a competition out of a game that is designed to compete individually…we scheduled the event for April! We got people from all the departments within the company involved!

I appeared in the most ridiculous costume rockin’ my hot pink vinyl boots…oh yeah- and that hair! I figured…I might as well go over the top…if I can’t play the game why not look like I should be IN the game, right?! We opened with an update on how Studio is doing, navigated through our new website, and talked about some of the custom office furniture projects we’re working on!

Everyone joined in for a go at the game and it left everyone laughing by the end of the night…or maybe they were laughing at my superstar costume?!

Rock on!

What does IIDA’s Haute Couture Rockstar Event have in common with commercial interior design and architecture? It takes some pretty talented people to build band costumes out of commercial fabrics and materials…on top of their daily careers!

The designs displayed at this year’s event were UNBELIEVEABLE! We sponsored Taylor Architects with their “Girl Band” theme and rocked the Spice Girls!

We worked for 8 weeks on designing vinyl masterpieces, choreographing our routine, but more importantly…getting to know each other! I found out that Vicky Goodchild from Taylor grew up close to me in Michigan and went to Kendall College of Art and Design only a couple years before me!

Opening up with “Wannabe”…the crowd sang! We rolled from one song to the next, dancing and singing, Spice Up Your Life!! We rocked out that night and had a blast…would have made the Spice Girls proud!

Behind every custom office furniture project we work on in OUR business…there are rockstars making it all happen!

Thanks Taylor Architects for a great experience!

This is my favorite time of year! The days are longer, the weather is mild and wedding invitations/graduations announcements make their way to me.

One announcement in particular made me smile….

A few years ago I met Cate when she came to interview for an intern position at Tangram Interiors. She was earnest, enthusiastic, and kooky with a good sense of design…and in the first five minutes she convinced me that we needed her as much as she needed us. During her time in our design department, she fit in well and happily completed every task we requested.

As Cate progressed, she came to realize that commercial interior design and designing office space was not for her. Fortunately, she fell in love with designing custom office furniture, and all that our Tangram Studio team has to offer. One quick change of major at CSULB (is there such a thing?) and she was on her way. She’s been helping Studio design sustainable and locally manufactured office furniture ever since.

Cate’s graduation announcement was on my desk this morning…with a note…text “YES” if I am coming…

Congratulations Cate!!!!

One of our industrial designers for Studio, the custom office furniture division at Tangram Interiors, is visiting with us for the week. For his first day with us, we arranged to visit some local Los Angeles based installations. What a pleasure it is when you are in the company of greatness, and watching the Studio Team review their work at LMU, UMPG, Light Manufacturing, KPCC and Dreamworks was totally awesome.
As you can see by the photos, the beauty is in the details. The Studio Team led by Charlotte Wiederholt with great assists from Jeremy Knapp and Ron Rousell, when talking design, is the absolute best. Listening to the feedback from end users and designers about their work is second to none.
Seeing the design team on their hands and knees inspecting all of the concealed fasteners used for the Library Carrols at LMU and seeing Jeremy mentor Brad and Marlin about the qualities of felt at the KPCC installation and watching Charlotte show the benefits of a Cam Lock versus a Mod-Z connection at Dreamworks was truly outstanding. Seeing the curved panels installed at UMPG was also a site to behold. Working closely with Mozu, Studio designed a curved panel that was “breathtaking” to see installed.

We ended our day at Flemings at LA Live and it is obvious that Tangram Studio not only provides excellent and pristine design and finished products, but the team also knows how to enjoy themselves. In addition to working hard, Studio knows how to play hard. Working with Tangram Studio is like...not working at all.

Unless you have been living under that proverbial rock, you have no doubt heard some, if not all of the uproar about Apple's latest gadget -- iPad -- and how it is set to be this revolutionary device that, "heralds a new era of computing."  Although I was immediately enamored with the new device, I was somehow able to resist the temptation to be one of the first 300,000+ people reported to have purchased it on Day 1.

But my choice to not purchase one for my personal use should not infer that I would not benefit from having one.  In fact, I believe that the iPad could truly be of benefit to me in my professional role.  So naturally, I asked the question, "How do I get my boss to buy me one?" I knew I would need some serious justification if I was even going to think of asking for one, so I decided to put that justification in the form of a letter.  Here is my best attempt...

_______________

Dear Boss,

I am writing to officially request the purchase of an Apple iPad for my daily use here at Tangram Interiors.  I truly believe this request will directly benefit the company through increased production and efficiency of my work.

As the Director of Interactive Media & eBusiness, almost all of my work is done on the internet. In any given day, I could be updating our Twitter account with informative links to articles on commercial interior design websites or posting pictures from our latest installation of office furnishings to our  Facebook fanpage.  Or I might find myself filming, editing and uploading a video to YouTube or as I did this morning, helping one of our employees update their profiles on LinkedIn to enhance their networking ability within the industry.  I also spend time editing and submitting posts from our internal bloggers here on the Inspired blog.  I often create and upload new content to our many websites, including my most recent work in project managing the redesign of the Tangram Studio site. A large portion of my time is spent managing our CRM (Salesforce.com - also web-based), like creating reports to track upcoming opportunities for commercial flooring or refurbished office furniture installations.  And while all of that is happening, I am often creating or editing our eBusiness web portals for our many customers so that they can manage their facilites and procure furniture assets easier.

So what does all of that have to do with the iPad?  Well, no one could explain it better than Apple themselves.  But if that wasn't enough, there are also the countless custom applications built specifically for iPad, like TweetDeck for Twitter and a new custom interface for Salesforce.com - applications aimed at increasing productivity.  And what about being able to support our internal users via the Tangram IT Help Desk?  No worries - the iPad has a built-in VPN client and free Remote Desktop applications that would allow me to connect to any computer or server on the network from wherever I am.

All in all, there is no better device available suited to help me be successful in what I do!

Thanks for your consideration,
Tim

_______________

So, what do you think?  Think it will work?  Would you buy me one?  No, seriously...would you?  Because he might not, and I still want one! ;)

So, I was having this dialogue with my wife the other night as we were watching What Would Brian Boitano Make? on Food Network over dinner.  What a scream.  Love the energy.  Anyway, she is a psychologist, and we razz each other back and forth about the buzzwords in our respective professions.  So when I told her that the South Park song is all about being planful, she was in my face about it being a made-up word, and a pretentious one at that.

I think that it is safe to say that anyone that works in the commercial interior design industry or has any involvement in dealing with office furnishings would agree it is easy to become overwhelmed with the countless products to choose from when creating an office space design.

From the floor to the ceiling, it could be the thousands of patterns and colors made available by the commercial flooring vendors to the more technical components of healthcare environments that could put any experienced professional into a tail spin.

But every once in a while a product comes along that is not only simple to specify, but more importantly simple to use - especially when that product is integrated with technology.  Such is the case with media:scape by Steelcase.  A seamless integration of furniture and technology, this product allows a user to quickly and easily "walk up and connect" their laptop to a table which is attached to as many as four screens.  No longer does a single person have to control the projector and sharing of information - now data can be shared from multiple sources, by multiple people - all at the same time!

Obviously, since Tangram Interiors is a Steelcase dealer and office interiors solutions provider we have access to use their full line of products - which is evident upon visiting any of our four showrooms in Los Angeles, Orange County, the Inland Empire and San Fernando Valley.  We have already installed two standing-height media:scape stations in our Santa Fe Springs showroom, one lounge-height station in Santa Ana and have multiple others that we are using in a "test drive" program where we deliver it to our customers' own offices so that they can kick the tires and use it for a week or so.

I must say that media:scape has definitely created an unusual buzz in the office, unlike any other I have witnessed in my tenure here.  The stations rarely go unused; from impromptu meetings to review documents between two individuals, to full conferencing sessions between our two showrooms using our WebEx meeting center for real-time document sharing as well as our latest addition of a video conferencing solution from LifeSize (of which Tangram is now an authorized dealer!) to allow for more personal interaction.

I may be a bit partial since I love technology, but I truly think that the office design layout and the way in which people interact within it is about to dramatically change thanks to technology solutions like media:scape.

If you have any thoughts on the use of technology in the workplace or if you would like more information on how we have integrated it in our offices, I would love to hear from you in the comments below!

Out in front of The Palm, cool wind in our hair
The crisp smell of Los Angeles, rising up in the air.

Mitchel being Mitchel, me on the phone while Debra's grabbing ice
Who knew at that point anything would turn out so fabulously nice.

Off to LA Live we went, checking out a pimped out suite
Frantically setting up...the crowd getting back we're trying to beat!

Justin Weiss fluently speaking on LA's past, present and future
While having a glass of wine, there isn't much it can't cure!

Passing buildings left and right, wondering...
Who might need custom office furniture this fine night?

'Round the corner, best french dip at Cole's (who knew)
Or if you're feeling extra feisty, go through the secret door to tip a few.

Rabbit, Buffalo, Rattlesnake...
How many exotic sausages can Wurstkuche make?

At the end of the day...who has the best time?
TangramStudio of course...
On top of creating sustainable office furniture,
they share their stories with a rhyme!

Do you have a tale to tell or favorite spot in Los Angeles?  Share them with us in the comments below!

WOW, what a fantastic place Pasadena is to have a drink and laugh with friends!!

Debra Haas (Tangram) and Marci Loftin (Corporate Contractors) put together "Mrs. Robinson's Night Out" and it was evident that this group needed a night off.  We all needed a break from the world of office furnishings and commercial interior design, so amongst some of the best in the industry we toasted with a glass of wine at Bodega Wine Bar!

After blinding Michele Sterling (Leo A Daly) by utilizing my fabulous photography skills, I ended up with a great picture of all of us...thanks for being a trooper Michelle!When you work hard, you must play hard as well - so as the night started with wine, cheese and tasty pizzas, it ended with dancing to the best music from the '90s!  You know once 'Hotstepper' (by the Lyrical Gangster himself, Ini Kamoze) hits the speakers it's time to dance!

Although I haven't had the pleasure of working with any of these great guys and gals yet on a custom office furniture project yet, we all have a common design bond and I look forward to collaborating with them in the future!

I would love to hear how you maintain your work/life balance in the comments below!  

KPCC was a project that started long ago in the world of custom office furniture.  It was four years ago when I first attended a meeting at the architecture firm, Chu + Gooding.  When I arrived at their office I could barely concentrate on the task at hand due to the lollapalooza of interesting mock-ups, posters, magazine images and samples that adorned the walls of their studio.  I may have appeared distracted or come across as rude, but it was a feast for the eyes and mind.

We had been asked to their fabulous office to discuss the development of custom workstations for a new space in Pasadena to be occupied by the public radio station, 89.3 KPCC.  The architect, Annie, was looking to create a space with "non-cubicle" and "non-corporate" looking workstations and sustainable office furniture.  She and I began sketching and talking about materials, the space itself and how the client wanted their space to function.

On the back wall of the studio there was the most perfect triangular piece of white wool felt pinned to the wall.  She mentioned that she had come across the felt while in Norway.  Ahh, inspiration!  I mentioned that we at TangramStudio were having a love affair with felt.  After all, what's not to love about a warm, textural material that is made from recycled sweaters?  The question then became - how could we use this sublime, natural, acoustical, tack-able and environmentally friendly material?  Since it feels somewhat warm like a blanket, we immediately thought about wrapping the panels with it.  We designed a panel wrap that would wrap from under the surface, up around the top to create a soft, radiused top cap.

As we worked our way through the design concept, Annie pushed for a creative way to combine the functional items required in a workstation.  The client had requested overhead cabinets. These usually end up creating an oppressive, heavy datum line that dominates the space.  So to reduce this effect, we designed the spine panels so that our installation crew could install the overheads at random, varying heights.  This created an undulating cityscape appearance in the space.

All of these design elements seemed easy except for the felt panels.  How were we to affix the felt to the panel?  What kind of felt...neddled or felted?  How thick...F-7 or f-15?  How should it be cut...water jet, laser or saw?  Luckily, there is a felt mill close by our office (we strive to use locally manufactured office furniture whenever possible).  After three wrong turns and two phone calls, we found the non-descript building that housed all of the answers we were looking for.  Inside was every imaginable felt available.  Rolls after rolls, 6 inches high to 96 inches high.  There were all of the colors - white, grey, green (for lizard cages), dark grey (for trunk liners).

There were multiple rounds of gluing, cutting and stretching of the felt until we had a material that could slide into a track/frame system.  The end result involved the felt being bolted to the metal panels.  This also added to the sustainability of the new workstations.  If the felt would to become soiled, it could be removed by simply removing four bolts and pulling it off the panel.  This way, the felt could be sent back to the mill and placed in the hopper for recycling.

Our love affair with felt continues...

I just got back to the Studio from an afternoon of prototyping felt tack panels at our upholsterer. For one of our current custom office furniture projects, the architect has a desire to create interior tack panels with horizontal stripes.

The inspiration comes from a British carpet manufacturer. They offer a line of thick, nubby, horizontal-striped carpet. It's really quite beautiful.

So how do we replicate a similar feel within the custom workstations? The architect suggested wicking felt, stacked horizontally. We attempted to sew 1/2" diameter wicking felt tubes to a felt backer. It was a bit like trying to squeeze a bubble. Needless to say, we had to go in an alternate direction.

However, felt has a great warm textural feel. We love felt! It's a "green" material (sustainable office furniture is something that we always try to incorporate into our projects) that has this fantastic organic/industrial/warm feeling all in one. Who would have thought all of that would be possible in one material? So I stopped by our felt vendor in Placentia (locally manufactured office furniture is another key to Studio projects) to obtain several sheets of felt.

Now, how could we take plain, flat felt sheets and begin to fold and sew them to create depth and pattern? There are so many options and possibilities when it comes to sewing: the manipulation of the felt sheets, the stitching, layering of strips - all interesting and full of possibilities.

We arrived at a possible solution. Gustavo, the factory manager, refurbishes old vintage cars. He suggested we treat the felt panels like vintage car seats - curved, detailed stitching, piping - picture a 1959 Impala or a 1965 Falcon. We landed on a 3/4" diameter piping strip stacked horizontally with a felt cover. Gustavo and I set out to the sewing machines to see if this would work. By horizontally stacking the piping and stitching it between two layers of felt I think we have a close facsimile to the British carpet!




Do you have a project that you are trying to incorporate something unique into? Let TangramStudio know - we would love to co-create something with you for your office design layout!