Westinghouse Arts Academy Charter School:
Education Furniture in Wilmerding, PA

Project

A creative and performing arts charter school for grades 9 through 12, Westinghouse Arts Academy needed a mix of flexible education and office furniture for their new school in Wilmerding, PA. The client needed the facility furnished before students returned to school, putting the timeline for this project at just under five weeks. In that time, OFW collaborated with Kimball as well as Westinghouse Arts Academy’s architecture and design firm to complete the project. As the office furniture dealer for this project, OFW was responsible for specification details, product sales, and fabric/finish options while simultaneously aligning furniture solutions with the renovation and space planning work done by the A&D firm.

Solution

Throughout the task, we addressed Westinghouse Arts Academy’s need for education furniture that would fit non-traditional teaching environments that emphasize collaboration between students and teachers. To tackle this, we leveraged various Kimball products that would allow students and staff to benefit from this personalized learning approach.

Collaborative learning areas leveraged Dock work, meeting, and training tables that were coupled with Flip chairs and Bingo stools, simultaneously lending themselves to stand-up work if needed. More informal collaboration areas used Bloom, Joelle, and Pairings seating options to create a comfortable, casual atmosphere. For individual classrooms, Kimball Dock, KORE, and Priority desks and tables were used alongside Flip chairs to create a functional workspace that can grow with the school.

In addition to classrooms, collaborative, and lounge areas, we worked with Kimball to outfit Westinghouse Arts Academy’s cafeteria area with sturdy solutions. Dock tables with Bingo chairs provided a simple, clean look that could withstand everyday use.

Working with an Office Furniture Dealership

Working with OFW provided the client with a handful of benefits that many other office furniture dealers are not able to provide. As a full-service dealership, we coordinated shipments with Kimball to our warehouse and handled all delivery and installation of products while keeping in close contact with WAA’s contractor as each area neared completion. This eliminated the need for a third party delivery and install team and put responsibility solely on OFW to complete the task. Also, as a Kimball Select Dealer, we were able to provide weekly status updates on product shipments and expedite when necessary, which proved crucial to meeting the project deadline.

Westinghouse Arts Academy was also able to leverage OFW’s inventory of pre-owned office furniture to purchase repainted used file cabinets and other auxiliary items they needed but didn’t have a large budget for. This helped keep them under their target spend for the project.

Moving forward, OFW handles any warranty issues for Westinghouse Arts Academy as well as any service and replacements should the need arise. If you’d like to see more on this project, please visit this case study on the Kimball website.