DGSOM at UCLA – Geffen Hall – Teaching Lab

Product: (26) VST-40x60x90, Table & Bar Heights, Wilsonart Natural Recon Plastic Laminate

Project Description:  Marshall Furniture had the privilege of building a variety of furniture for the new Geffen Hall Medical Education Building at UCLA last year.  One of the most interesting spaces in Geffen Hall is the Teaching Lab.  This space utilizes (26) V-shaped collaboration tables paired with cutting edge technology installed by AVI-SPL to create a collaborative flipped classroom teaching environment.  The dual table heights help with sight lines within the space by seating the students in the center of the room at a typical table height and the students around the perimeter at bar height.  Dual monitors allow the instructor to display content on one screen while student content can be channeled to the secondary screen.  The AMX boxes provide the collaborative connectivity.  Custom speakers manufactured by Brown Innovations are installed in the table edge and create a personal sound zone for each seated user.  The credenza base provides ample storage space for the rack that holds the brains of the system.

“The school's design originally included monitor lift cabinets at the head of each table that would have concealed the displays when not in use.  As the project developed, this option was replaced with the stationary monitors which simplified things quite a bit.  The layout of the space and the concept of such a large scale collaborative classroom was intriguing to me from the day the customer brought the project to us to fashion a design.  As many projects do, this one changed quite a bit from conception to construction.  Embedding the custom speakers in the table edge added an additional layer of complexity.  The finish combination selected by the architect resulted in a very linear, modern feel to the tables”.

Ariel Blaha
Sales Manager
Marshall Furniture Inc

“Working with Ariel Blaha and the Marshall Furniture team is always a pleasure, and the Teaching Lab Collaboration Table design process was no exception.    The design process for these pieces lasted many months, with numerous updates and modifications as the overall system designs evolved.  Ariel was always ready to accommodate whatever changes were needed.  Far beyond simply producing design drawings, Ariel was a critical resource throughout the process, suggesting numerous additions or changes to solve problems or streamline functionality which were incorporated in the final table designs.  This sort of truly collaborative design process, along with Marshall’s deep understanding of what it takes to make furniture that can adequately accommodate the power, ventilation, cable pathway & other equipment needs of today’s cutting edge AV systems makes Marshall my preferred custom AV furniture vendor.”

Neil Bornn-Gilman
Manager, Audiovisual Services
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA