When you space plan, you must also furniture plan. Knowing what furniture you plan to reuse will dictate what office dimensions are needed. Knowing what furniture you will be buying will allow you to know how much time you need. Furniture lead times are surprisingly long, every time. This furniture planning is an excellent conversation to start at the beginning and with your architect and/or project manager as they have extensive furniture networks and experience working with these vendors.
When my oldest daughter started first grade, the elementary school teachers were so excited about the new German designed and manufacturer furniture that the PTA had purchased for the classroom. The old furniture had been in the school for ten years and frankly looked like it had been over 20 years based on what I remember of first grade. The design of this furniture divided the room into groups that could rotate through different arrangements. There were new desks with ergonomic chairs, round tables with low height stools that could move around and spin as needed, and other round tables that would allow for sitting on the ground and more. School started, and no furniture. The furniture came 30 days into the school year. People had to work overtime and duplicate efforts to move supplies, break down furniture, and move the new furniture into a classroom filled with projects, papers, books, supplies, and boxes everywhere. Everything worked out in the end. Students, teachers, and parents alike could see and feel the difference this new furniture had in the classroom. It was fantastic. What I noticed was a missed opportunity for planning success.
Now imagine if instead of schoolbooks in the classroom, you had desks, computers, workstations, servers, electrical, wiring, TV’s, monitors, plants, artwork, carpet, polished concrete and stairwells in your office. Would you want to move all of that more than once? Would you stay in your old facility paying an extra $25,000 or $50,000 per month to wait so that you didn’t have to move twice? What if moving twice disrupted the work you were executing for your best customer? Always discuss furniture early.
