Madison Area Technical College (MATC) had a problem. Students who needed tutoring were stuck meeting in the library. So what's the problem? The library is the natural place to study and learn, right? Wrong. When it comes to tutoring needs today, MATC's 1986-built library just wasn't cutting it. The college needed a more active, less quiet hub where students could go for peer and instructor tutoring for any and every topic. And so the Student Achievement Center was born.
Enter Ally Adams, the facility designer in charge of all interior needs. When it came to furniture for the Student Achievement Center, she had some serious specs in mind. "I needed height adjustability as well as mobility. I'm picky about leg style and how it looks with the caster, too. Some mobile tables have wheels that look like an afterthought," she said. For a space this frequented, Ally also needed durability. Tables are constantly moved and pushed together for study groups small and large — this is no place for poor-quality furniture. Ally explained, "I've seen it all here in 20 years. Casters break off, broken tables are pushed into the corner waiting for the caster fairies to fix them in the middle of the night." That's an image we can picture all too well.
For Ally and the Student Achievement Center, the SurfaceWorks Freedom collection fit the bill perfectly. The bases are built tough, offering a healthy amount of legroom, and options for height adjustability and casters make mobility a cinch. "The furniture has been ridiculously well received," Ally said. "Students love it. It's been nice to easily adjust tables, especially in helping students with ADA challenges." Aesthetically, Freedom was right up Ally's alley, too, with its slim leg profile and caster integration. "Sometimes with specs, you can get one thing and not the other. SurfaceWorks had all of what I needed to stay in the same family of tables," Ally said. With Freedom, Ally felt the design was right, the cost was competitive, and the SurfaceWorks service was exactly where she needed it to be. "Customer service is huge to me," said Ally. "I don't have time for things to be broken or in ill repair. I think they're great at response and the level of care for post-occupancy issues that might arise."