Florida Architects Choose SMARTdesks Technology Furnishings for GCSC Advanced Technology Center
SMARTdesks responds to Florida Architects design concept with customized furniture for each space. SMARTdesks offers a central source for creative control, interior design unity and cost containment to accomplish Gulf Coast State College’s large scope vision.Baltimore, MD — July 29, 2013Gulf Coast State College’s Advanced Technology Center, a 93,500 square foot facility started six years ago, is now nearing completion. Announced at the June 20th meeting of the District Board of Trustees, GAC and HJ High “signed over” control of the ATC site to the college, having achieved “Substantial Completion” of the facility. Thus began the phase of installing furniture and equipment within a six-week window. SMARTdesks is on schedule, delivering custom designed, best of breed technology furniture in preparation for the GCSC ATC’s fall classes and activities."It's not just a beautiful new building with great programs," GCSC College President Jim Kerley said. "The philosophy is an integrated building with lots of groups working together to break down silos and work together."The concept and design were made to maximize the flexibility of the space to adapt to many different uses to serve students, the community and local businesses. Flexibility was emphasized to meet the needs of current and future programs and students, Kerley said.The team of college administrators, consultants and architects put the plan together after visiting numerous other technology centers across the country. "This will be the top technology center in Florida and probably the nation. It's that kind of a facility," Kerley said, capping ATC’s vision statement to serve as a national model for best practices in connecting education to business and industry through flexible and accessible education programs across K-12 and articulating into postsecondary education. The GCSC ATC dissolves the barriers between regional and community assets, serving as a proactive and sustained center for unprecedented collaboration.SMARTdesks’ collaborative business model—innovating and producing customized product for each customer—was used to realize ATC’s flexible approaches in education and applications of technology in learning. SMARTdesks president/CEO Jeffrey Korber aligned his project team with Florida Architects to achieve the edge in customized furniture design, while containing costs, and giving GCSC greater control in managing product delivery and installation, using SMARTdesks as the primary furniture manufacturer. The foundation of the ATC itself is focused on the entrepreneurial spirit which continually adapts to the changes in the regional and global economy. Positioned within a state college, the ATC’s aim to accelerate the idea-to-market continuum was applied to this working relationship with SMARTdesks. Korber remarks, “We are grateful for the opportunity to help realize GCSC’s vision and share in the successful completion of the Advanced Technology Center.”SMARTdesks designs and manufactures innovative, custom computer conference tables and computer classroom furniture. Each product is made to order, nuanced for the technology, purpose and interior design choices for the space. SMARTdesks is the patent holder for flipIT® products and is the sole source for flipIT and factory integrated flipIT furniture products. Serving universities, corporations, government and military clients world-wide, SMARTdesks furniture is made in the USA using Certified GREEN manufacturing methods. For more information, contact smartdesks through the web site— www.smartdesks.com