K12 Environments
Mass Seating
Product: At the gathering stair, we see a particular moment when high-density stack chairs (Leland Mass) have been set up for a more formal event, in this case, a panel discussion with an invited audience. Leland’s high Fixed tables are easily and quickly powered from the floor to accommodate the necessary equipment and matching stools also stack as easily as the hi-density Mass stacking chairs. On a more typical day, the stairs serve as a place for encountering and engaging with the larger space and community, and for stopping to sit for a conversation or impromptu meeting.
Application: The atrium with gathering stairs is a feature in many new institutional designs and is now often being added to link older buildings in more traditional settings. Conceived as a place for gathering and collaborating, these spaces are intended to nurture idea-sharing and communication between teaching faculty and students, as well as between disciplines. Often regarded as an ‘information commons’ such spaces serve as an informal living room for congregating, supplemented with smaller articulated spaces for quiet study and group meetings. Many schools treat them as more of an innovation space, featuring abundant technological resources for research and information with the emphasis on virtual tools over traditional reference materials. A range of furniture for casual encounters will be found along with the tables for group activities and some private study carrel-type arrangements.
Beach Stones
Product: Leland's Beach Stones come in both adult and child sizes along with various coordinating table options with different surface choices. Students’ satisfaction with spaces is connected to whether they can manipulate furnishings within the space to suit their learning needs, so the furniture is lightweight and mobile enough to be easily moved throughout the day. In open work areas standing and regular height tables (Fixed tables) allow students to work alone or in small groups, and balance a mix of study spaces in the open congregated spaces.
Application: In a library area or in an ‘information commons’ there are both project and reading tables as well as a soft seating area where one can easily re-arrange the upholstered pieces for reading in solitude or for a small group discussion. Soft forms and colors invite respite and reflection and create different settings that respect individual personas and are therefore more inclusive.
Fixed Table and M2 Seating
Product: The Fixed Table evokes a singular high aesthetic of a mid-century piece, brilliantly forming a functional metal extrusion into a shape that mimics turned and tapered wood – a change from the usual harshness of metal legs and table frames. A variety of tops from laminate, wood veneer to Corian and Forbo Furniture Marmoleum enable the same table to be used in maker-spaces and other heavy-duty work/crafts areas, as well as reading tables in libraries where the resilient Forbo surface is preferred. In standard lengths up to 120 inches, the Fixed table comes in both counter and bar height as well as standard table height. Rather than build technology into the furniture with the removable parts and requirements for tools that one so often encounters, Leland’s Fixed table is a solution where technology is cleanly supported in the tables while allowing for future flexibility. The unique metal extrusion enables any cabling to be dropped into any of the four legs, and the design is such that no clips or additional fussing are needed to keep the cords in place. The table-top technology itself is flush, thereby not impacting the full use of the surface when nothing is connected and offers a combination of outlets and USB ports.
The M2 stools can be had as both counter and bar height as well as chairs – all offering a variety of cut-outs in the back, or even an actual logo. The two-tone seat-shell affords pops of color on the exterior while the clear natural seat on the inside minimizes the appearance of any abrasions or scratching. These, along with many others on our website, meet the 500lb. test, and the frames can be had in a wide range of colors.
Application: Communal study areas must incorporate varying table heights and allow for single or group occupancy. Focused work can be done at a high surface as in the traditional study carrel mode; standing work where a quick impromptu session or some project layout is required can be performed at standing height tables, and regular height tables also allow for some group participation. The table layout should be easily reconfigurable and if powered, the ‘plug and play’ needs to be quick and intuitive.
Handy and M3 Table
Product: A stack of Leland’s Handy stools can be arranged in front of a chalkboard or writeable wall when needed for a breakout session from an adjacent classroom, or they may just serve as a spot to sit for a one-on-one session with a teaching staff member. Available with wood and upholstered tops in addition to the basic stool, the cavity not only serves as a storage cabin to keep one’s possessions or beverages out of harm’s way, but also affords the proper recess for placing one’s leg(s) at the ergonomically correct angle when leaning forward. The flat disc bases and solid cone forms of many stools force our legs to remain out front, causing an incorrect arching of the spine when leaning forward.
The M3 table is available in a wide range of sizes and both counter and bar heights as well. The Forbo top shown here is another surface option which can be used to coordinate with the other Leland products also available with this type of surface.
Application: Contemporary interior architecture strives to avoid double-loaded corridors and dead-end halls in educational buildings, and all shared spaces should invite engagement and encourage interaction on a casual and spontaneous basis. Furnishing these areas can be problematic with code regulations for fire and egress, so the ability to pull up a seat and work with a white-board or other instruction tools calls for light moveable furniture where nothing is fixed.
Parfait II Seating and Quarry Collection
Product: Leland’s Parfait II chairs offer a wider seat and an upholstery option providing a different and more comfortable experience than the typically smaller-scaled and less contoured classroom chair. A wide range of solid colors, semi-transparent wood stains as well as natural wood options afford the design opportunity to make any statement or expression of a school’s culture or to invite a specific mood, especially when in concert with the many metal frame options. Parfait II can be had arm or armless and even on casters. Aside from the durability evidenced by its passing 500lb. testing, a unique feature is the ability to stack even the chairs with casters.
The Quarry collection is an assortment of soft seating in varying heights that also has a simple mobile tablet stand. Making true ‘lounge-work’ possible Quarry can also elevate a design with its sophisticated stitching detail option.
Application: The new social spaces are distributed throughout a school and are usually an expanded form of the typical circulation areas. In STEM settings and where classrooms can be opened up and combined when needed, we see adjacent areas where student teams can break out to prepare for a presentation, or simply where the break is merely an extended period between classes. Furnishings must support individual and group situations and hold up to constant use throughout the day.
Fixed, Fast Tables, and Parfait II Seating
Product: The Fixed Table has a sturdy metal frame with the appearance of soft tapered and turned wood legs. But the metal extrusion provides a channel for wire management inside each leg and with no need for any tools to remove and replace any cover element over the channel. Cabling is easy and intuitive, and as a table in regular, counter and bar heights, it is perfect for team-teaching activities and projects.
Fast Tables have a unique flexibility in that square, round and rectangular table-tops can be switched out on the same table base. The table-base also folds flat when not in use so a minimum of inventory is required for multiple table-top shape options.
Parfait II chairs can be arm or armless and with or without upholstered seat pads. For a lower cost option in place of the typical 5-star wheeled base, there is this 4-leg version with casters. This gives the additional benefit of a wheeled chair that can also stack.
Application: In this classroom, a flexible project-based or team-teaching space relies on the warmth of wood and soft grey metals. This affords a sense of calm combined with the richness of traditional study environments, even when more modern pedagogical styles are being employed. The use of warm woods versus colorful poly finishes can evoke very different moods when a more considered approach to materials and colors is taken. This can be seen in the next image:
Fast Tables and Slam Seating
Product: Slam Chairs come in wood or polypropylene, and as used in the same size classroom as the one above, the light blue seats on white frames create an entirely different aesthetic. Like the wood Parfait II chairs, these Slam pieces are also stackable even in the version with casters.
The Fast tables have rectangular tops on the universal bases that could also hold round or square tops, and the Slam stool features a base frame that matches the blue of the seat shell. Leland’s color and finish options enable this unique monolithic look between the metal and poly elements.
The high round table is from the M3 collection – this is an extensive line of tables in many sizes, shapes, and heights.
Application: In this layout, the same space as the previous one is styled as a more traditional instructor-led layout, but with a very clean, modern, and sleek feeling. The same collapsible Fast tables now have white tops and bright-colored frames, which are combined with matching polypropylene Slam chairs on casters. These, like the wood Parfait II chairs, can also be stacked. With the chairs stacked and the tables completely collapsible, this room is easily transformed and reconfigured for any purpose.
Fast Tables with Marquette Seating
Product: Marquette chairs: now in their third decade of production the Marquette chair remains renowned for its potential for customization through a variety of cut-outs, the application of colored semi-transparent stains, and optional shapes to the seat-backs. The Little Marquette chair is a version that comes in a 15” seat height for middle-school children. Like most of Leland’s seating, the Marquette passes a 500lb. test and besides Marquette, all of Leland’s wood chairs can have custom artwork or logos as either a cut-out or an engraving on the backs of the chairs. These custom logos afford a way to reinforce and share a sense of ‘place’ and branding for a school.
Fast Tables: The bases for these tables need not leave the room since different top shapes and sizes can be used on the same base. Just the different tops need to be stored on dollies if whole tables do not need to be cleared from a space.
Application: The café is often the most underutilized space in a school. Used for perhaps less than two hours on any day, simple alternative furniture choices can substantially raise that level of use. The same space can be used for team meetings, small group sessions, and even for parent events if the furniture is an upgrade from the typical tables-with-attached benches type of furniture. With the addition of technology, these spaces can be purposed as another auditorium or presentation space.
By just switching round tops for rectangular ones on the same Fast Table bases a forward-facing training-room layout or cafeteria setting is easily transformed here into a more elegant round dining layout for the evening and adult events.
Amadeus Seating and Fixed Tables
Product: The Amadeus chair is Leland’s top-selling product. Like the Slam chair, Amadeus is available in polypropylene on metal four-leg or sled-bases, as well as in a wood shell on wood bases, and with counter and barstool versions also on both base-types. Upholstery options include both an onlay pad as well as full upholstery.
Flexible Fast tables and the powered high Fixed Tables complete the main space, but the utilization of the outer corridor space is made possible with the low Ebb Benches.
The Ebb Bench is a system comprising rectangular benches and round connecting hubs for large public seating areas, but single benches incorporating power and data provide touch-down points where one can work anywhere.
The Quarry Mobile Tablet stands out in its category as the only tablet stand that passes a 500lb. test. These are the very items that too often are sat or even stood on, but as an essential piece in open areas, Leland has designed the most sturdy in the market. Pulled up to the Ebb Benches the Quarry Tablet makes for a comfortable position while using any device.
Application: In this STEM room roll-up doors allow increased utilization of adjacent spaces: the corridor beyond has powered benches and whiteboards so that study groups can overflow and gather for break-out discussion sessions and work. Leland’s Quarry Mobile tablet-stand placed at the powered Ebb benches enables devices to be used anywhere. Inside the main space, the high Fixed tables have Corian tops and the Amadeus seating is polypropylene – both materials lending themselves to maker-space and lab-type activities.