Customized Systems Furniture For Law Offices

By Author: John Tang
Total Articles: 512
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From a prospective client's perspective, first impressions are important when entering a law office for the first time. Office design, furnishings and ambiance quickly send the message that this is a winning firm or a wannabe.

But there's another side of first impressions. An ostentatious atmosphere could turn prospects away feeling that the firm might be overpriced.

Achieving a balance of style, function and good taste in systems furniture for law offices can be challenging if budgets are an issue, says Kyle Walters, who is in charge of design at MAiSPACE, a Mt. Olive, NJ, based manufacturer of modular office furniture systems. Fortunately, modern manufacturing technologies deliver superior quality furniture systems from as low as $12.00 per square foot installed. Included is a lifetime warranty on performance and against obsolescence.

Systems are adaptable to any office floor plan, says Walters. Configurations include freestanding offices, welcoming reception areas; private full wall offices, libraries and conference rooms, open-area work stations for support staff and common areas for breaks, ...
... teaming, printers and paper processing.

MAiSPACE, a name based on the furniture industry acronym Modular Architectural Interiors, was established in 1993 with a revolutionary concept in manufacturing and design leading to dramatic reductions in price points compared to offerings by some of the oldest names in the contract furniture business. Simply put, we are unburdened by outdated manufacturing facilities typical of our competition, says Walters, MAiSPACE started from scratch to create an off-modular stackable panel system with flexibility and performance unmatched in the industry. Included as an industry first is a fully standards compliant cable management system that, together with the system elements, easily adjusts to the Moves, Adds and Changes (MACs) typical in today's growing law firms.

Custom Designs No Challenge

A large intellectual property law firm based in California was looking for a solution to furnishing its 140,000 square foot corporate headquarters.

The firm's architectural and design firm teamed with MAiSPACE to create custom designed workstations to blend in with walls, bookshelves, and other furnishings throughout the 6 floors of office space. Included were custom cherry veneer workstations for 212 administrative personnel.

Quality construction and the ability to accept customized tiles, together with a very competitive price and guaranteed delivery made MAiSPACE the leading contender in this project, recounts Walters. The client's requirements included providing 1600 book-matched cherry veneer tiles finished on both sides for workstations and end panels on storage units for files and binders.

The client requested book-matched veneer tiles finished on both sides in order to provide a smooth visual impression, rather than a patchwork of grain patterns, along office aisles and corridors, Walters explains. Tiles finished on both sides in the long run prove beneficial because panels get damaged no matter how careful people are. In this case, damaged tiles can be reversed and the continuous grain pattern is restored.

Other workstation elements include frosted glass tiles that contribute a feeling of spaciousness while protecting privacy.

Construction Quality Adds Value

Although the wood tiles were critical in the overall design, other features of MAiSPACE were important considerations for this demanding client.

"The client found MAiSPACE quality far superior to that of other systems within its price range," says Walters. Framing is constructed of 16-gauge cold-rolled steel to provide strength and rigidity when in use and remain distortion-free during installation as well as any subsequent moves, adds or changes. He notes that the system's knockdown and ready-to-assemble (RTA) framing components equipped with self-leveling connections simplified moving elements into and throughout the building and contributed substantially to meeting tight deadlines while reducing installation costs. Should this client wish to alter workspace configuration, the system's off-modular design allows flexibility in workspace size, configuration and in locating bins, shelves, and divider panels, he says.

Consider the Case for Cabling

Managing technology in the workspace has become a science of its own and is an issue that can't be overlooked. For example, Walters points out, standards govern the design and placement of voice, data and video cabling upon which partners and staff depend for high-speed Internet access, for file sharing and to communicate with other law firm branches, clients and other outside resources through local and wide area networks (LANs and WANs) . The MAiSPACE patented plug and play voice, data and power cabling handling system is specifically designed to handle MACs without disrupting the entire office network. It holds a ‘Best of NeoCon award,' the highest award in the contract furniture industry.

Horizontal voice and data cabling serving workspaces is configured as a zone distribution system employing plug-and-play factory terminated and tested modular cable connectors and assembles in copper or optical fiber. These are laid in behind lift-off panel segments for easy access to simplify adding capacity or rerouting networks. The system conforms to applicable industry standards such as TIA/EIA-568-B.1, TIA/EIA-568-B.2, and TIA/EIA-568-B.3 *. With such a cabling system reconfiguring an office floor plan can be accomplished in hours instead of days without disrupting the entire office LAN. Moreover, the work can be done by in-house personnel after a minimum of training, Walters says.