Aeron Alternatives

In my previous blog I considered why the Aeron was so popular. In this one I will provide some information on Alternatives to the Aeron.

So you aren't crazy about the Aeron, or you don't want to follow the crowd. Maybe you don't want to pop for the big price tag. (At BetterSource, we sell the Aeron for about $550 used. They go for about $900 new.) What are other chairs should be considered?

The Herman Miller Embody chair (Photo at right from Herman Miller Seating.) is their latest attempt to follow up the success of the Aeron. It has a spine-like support system and is a very complicated chair to operate. It was co-designed by Bill Stumpf who designed the Aeron with Bill Chadwick. I have sat in this chair and found it very comfortable. But I have heard differing reviews, particularly that smaller people don't like it as well. Herman Miller Seating sells the chair for $1495. Knowing Herman Miller, a dealer that advertises the chair has to do so at that price. But you can probably buy them for considerably less if you call, particularly if you buy larger quantities.

The Humanscale Freedom chair (Photo on left from Humanscale site.) is probably the most successful premium priced chair (Above $500) that is a good alternative to the Aeron. Mark Erickson of Mark Erickson Associates, who used to work for a Herman Miller dealer and has sold thousands of Aerons prefers the Freedom. "When I sit in the chair, it seems to follow my body." Said Erickson. Indeed that is what Neils Diffrient intended when he designed it. It is one of the simplest and most easy to use chairs. New Freedom chairs sell for about the same as the Aeron. Used ones for under $350.

The Steelcase Leap chair is hugely successful in terms of volume shipped. The Humanscale may not outsell the Steelcase Leap, but then again, Steelcase discounts the Leap to get the large national contracts and sells the chairs as part of packages with cubes and desks. The Leap, which has no mesh, is one to consider as an alternative.

The Contessa chair, from Teknion, is less well known, but one of the few chairs to feature a mesh seat as well as back. This chair is one of my favorites. It has a seat sliding adjustment to accommodate longer or shorter legs, which the Aeron does not. Its controls are on the arm pads, so you don't have to reach under the chair to adjust. It is a very good-looking chair too. It is premium priced comparable to the Aeron. They are hard to find used, but will sell for less than a used Aeron. (Photo of Contessa below from Teknion Website.)

The Knoll Chadwick (Photo below right from Knoll website.) chair also has a mesh seat. I like this chair and as the name implies, it was designed by the designer of the Aeron. It can be purchased new for less than the Aeron, usually less than $650. One doesn't run across very many used ones.

Some others high-end chairs of note are the Allsteel 19 chair, the Knoll Life Chair and the Haworth X99 chair.

Going lower down the price scale are a group of chairs that tend to have fabric seats and mesh backs. My favorite is the Office Master Yes chair (Photo at below left from Office Master site.) that can be purchased new for $350, considerably less than a used Aeron. The chair has adjustable arms, a memory foam seat and choice of seat colors in Teknit fabric. It is a great value.

At the bottom of the price scale are the knock-offs from Asia. These come in various names and many can be purchased for at or below $200. There are some that were copied directly from the Yes chair.

Of course there are many others, but these are a good starting point. Talk to your favorite furniture dealer for more alternatives.

SRK

Aeron - Why Does Everyone Still Want One?

15 years after its introduction, the Aeron chair by Herman Miller is still the most desired chair. Why? Is it comfort, status, function, style or lack of a real alternative? The answer is a little bit of all of the above. In the next blog I will talk about alternatives to the Aeron. Today I will discuss what makes the Aeron everyone's top chair.

Comfort - The Aeron, in my opinion, is a very comfortable chair. I have sat in one for most of the last 15 years. I remember when they were designing the Aeron. All we were told was that it would have no fabric or foam. Aeron's pellicle (mesh) cradles you like a hammock. The airflow keeps heat from building up. The chair rocks back easily.

On the negative, it has a clunky lumbar system, the arms are usually set too wide, and the front edge of the seat digs into your hamstrings. There are definitely more comfortable chairs. A very funny article published right after the dot.com bust on dack.com, outlines the perceived failings of the Aeron.

Status - Dr. House sits in an Aeron. Why don't you? The Aeron is in ads, TV shows, movies. All the big guys in Silicon Valley sit in them. "This chair has a cult following." Says Darryl Denny, President of BetterSource.

During the dot.com days Aerons were standard equipment. I thought that maybe the Enron bust and the dumping of hundreds of Aerons on the used market might take the bloom off the rose. But it actually made them available to a wider audience as used chairs.

There was even a notorious deal where a warehouse store talked a Herman Miller dealer into faking the special pricing reserved for another large company and selling them the chairs at a huge discount. When the chairs appeared in the stores, the dealer reportedly lost their Herman Miller dealership. Anyone could buy the Aeron at a steep discount and Herman Miller was not amused.

Function- The Aeron's mechanism is simple to use. You can lock it forward or lock it back. The chair goes up and down, but there is no complicated seat angle or back angle adjustments. The synchronized, knee-tilt is very comfortable. Since the Aeron's introduction, other chairs have been designed with better tilt mechanisms, but they are just as expensive or more.

Style - It is a cool looking chair; very understated and elegant. Usually in black or charcoal colors, it is the classic, little black dress of the industry. It follows on the heals of Herman Miller's other classic chairs, like the Eames chairs, the Equa Chair and the Ergon.

Lack of Alternatives - There is some juice to this argument. There are very few chairs, with a mesh seat. Every knock-off has a mesh back, but only a few have a mesh seat. And they cost just as much. So why not get an Aeron? Even Herman Miller has tried and failed with several chairs since the Aeron. None have caught on. About the only way to beat them is by under pricing the Aeron. And Aeron's high price, like a Mercedes, just adds to the mystique.

SRK

Tips for buying used cubicles?

With the business climate mired in a recession, anyone looking for furniture these days is asking the used furniture question. Many times I have heard the statement “There must be a lot of used furniture available with all of these companies laying people off or going out of business.” This is true.

There is a lot of used furniture available. Much of it is old or junky, because a lot of furniture was purchased in the late 90s and early 2000s during the boom. Or it is in dot-com colors like purple or yellow or orange. But there is a lot of good furniture as well.

How do you take advantage of the great price advantage of used furniture in your company’s facility? Here are some tips.

Be flexible – Be flexible about what you want. Most cubicles are 8x8 or 6x8. Most are also taller heights like 66”. Everyone wants smaller cubicles with lower panel heights these days. Those inventories are more rare and therefore more expensive. So when I get a call saying, “I want 48” tall 6x6 cubicles in light beige with glass elements.” I tend to suggest refurbished or new furniture.

Think Long Term – Unless you know you are outfitting a space for less than a year, look for something that you can add to later that will match. Either that or plan your space so that you fill it up and by all you will need for the full space. Buying matching furniture later is always more expensive than your original furniture. Some people don’t mind having the second set of furniture not match. This is the very cost effective.

Set a realistic budget – Decent used cubicles (Like the Allsteel Terrace shown at the top) in this market cost from $500 to $800 per station. Cheaper cubes are available, but they will be older and possibly in bland or nasty colors and finishes (Like the cube shown below). This price does not include installation charges. And no, you cannot install them yourself. Installation for a bare bones crew in an easy access building will cost $150 to $225 per station. If you have to have weekend or after hours access, require union labor or a stair-carry is required, add more money.

Plan ahead – Give yourself as much time as possible to determine your plan in advance and then look for the right inventory. Get a plan from your landlord. An AutoCAD (.dwg) file allows your vendor to plan the space to scale so you know what can fit. Do a block plan in 6x8 and 8x8 cubicles and see if the counts work for you. Then go look for the size you want. Think about what height panels you want. Full privacy is 62 to 70 inches. Seated privacy height panels are 47 to 56 inches. Open plan heights are below 47 inches. You can mix the heights too. Don’t get too specific though. (See point 1)

Find a vendor you trust – If you commit to one reputable dealer before you start, they will work harder for you. Ask for two or three names from your real estate broker or colleagues. Interview them and then select someone as your top choice. Be open about what you are doing and tell them if you are talking to others. If you see something else from someone else, show main partner vendor. Odds are they can find something similar or even get you the same furniture. Be aware that dealers may show you inventories that they do not own. This is okay and will get you a look at more product. A true partner will show you more and work harder to get you what you want. Give your partner the last look before you buy.

Good luck shopping.

SRK

Formaldehyde - A Bad Chemical Being Phased Out

Beginning in January 2009, the California Air Resources Board will begin phasing out formaldehyde from being used in the manufacture of fiberboard, plywood and other products prominently used in the making of office furniture.

According to the press release 08-90: "All businesses that manufacture, sell, use or supply composite-wood products to California will be subject to aspects of the regulations. These businesses include panel manufacturers, importers, distributors, retailers, and fabricators of finished goods. Only composite-wood products that meet the standards may be used in the fabrication of finished goods, such as furniture, cabinets, etc. once the sell-through provisions expire. The regulation allows for current stocks of non-compliant composite-wood inventories to be sold for a period of time in California."

"The regulations are expected to increase the cost of four foot by eight foot panels by one to two dollars but they will dramatically reduce the public's exposure to this carcinogen. Phase-one will cut formaldehyde emissions by 180 tons-per-year and phase-two another 500 tons-per-year." Phase 2 will be phased in by 2012.

This may have a big impact on furniture imported from Asia, as these regulations will be the most strictly in existence.

Photo of medium density fiberboard from Wikipedia. I also told about how fiberboard is used in the construction of wood and laminate furniture in my previous post Laminate or Wood Furniture - What is the Difference?

SRK

I Don't Want My Back To The Door

"I hate having my back to the door." This is a constant refrain I here from cubicle dwellers. Gunslingers like Clint Eastwood's Man With No Name never liked doing it in the old west. And according to Dragon Feng Shui, "Facing a wall can make it seem as though you will never get ahead, as your progress is blocked." They recommend a mirror. But we can show you how to face the door without using mirrors.

With a few extra planning steps. It is a snap to configure your cubicles so that you can work on the computer and not have your back to the opening.

Just place the corner on the wing panel as shown in the first photo of Steelcase Answer cubicles. As an added benefit, this configuration results in more workspace for the person using the cube than the standard back-to-the-opening configuration. You will need to figure out how to bring power out to the corner. This can add to the expense. Of course, a cheap solution would be a long plug strip.

If the cube is at least 8x8, you can use a 36" corner and a 24" return surface to get workspace to the right of the corner. This still leaves a three-foot opening.

Another idea is to use a curved straight surface that is slightly wider on the end nearest the opening. This work especially well in smaller cubes like 6x8. In these days of flat screen monitors, you really don't need the depth of a corner worksurface to accommodate the monitor. See the second photo of Teknion Leverage cubicles.

If you can't reconfigure your cube, Dragon Feng Shui has more tips.

SRK

What the heck is a pedestal?

Being an Office Furniture Geek, I often slip into "furniture-ese", that obscure lingua franca of my fellow furniture shleppers. One of the primary terms in this language is the term pedestal.

Pedestals, BBF on the left and FF on the right.

A pedestal is a small set of file drawers that sits under a desk, or in a cubicle it sits under the work surface. Normally about 15 inches wide and 28 inches or less tall, they typically come in two varieties. Box/Box/File (BBF) or File/File (FF). A BBF is a 3 drawer pedestal that has two 6 inch tall (or box) drawers and one twelve inch tall (or file) drawer. A FF pedestal has two file drawers that are 12" tall.

Box drawers store your pencils, calculator and other small items. My Mom used to call this the junk drawer. The uncharacteristically clearly-named file drawer is for filing.

Just to confuse the issue, some people call a Box/Box/File a 6/6/12 and a File/File a 12/12. There are also B/F files with just two drawers of 6 and 12 inches, respectively. These tend to hang from the worksurface which makes them a suspended pedestal. Suspended meaning it is attached to the worksurface and does not touch the floor. Also there are mobile pedestals, which have wheels. And freestanding pedestals that are not attached to the worksurface above them. Some pedestals can have a pad on top and double as a guest chair in a pinch.

Below is a photo of what most people think is a pedestal.

Open versus Collaborative Environments

Whenever I am planning spaces for customers the issue of privacy versus openness comes up. Do we want our people to collaborate in an open environment? Or do we want more privacy so people can concentrate and do their work?

This often comes up as an issue of tall panels versus short. But it also incorporates, cubicle size, station orientation (Do I sit with my back to the opening or facing the opening?), who gets private offices and common areas like conference rooms, "all-hands areas" and informal "bean bag" areas.

Mark Erickson from Mark Erickson and Associates says it involves hi-tech versus hi-touch. "People often think they are communicating, when they are really only talking through their computers. The contact with other people is often missing."

With Mark's help, we came up with three phrases, probably not original, that describe the scenarios we see most often.

CAVE - where private offices and/or large cubicles, 8x8 or larger, with tall walls of at least 66 inches in height are used. Conference rooms are available for meetings as well.

CAVE and COMMONS - with tall cubes or mixed-height cubes where open areas are liberally interspersed throughout the space. These can be both formal conference rooms and informal areas for ad-hoc meetings.

OPEN COLLABORATIVE - with typically smaller cubes with height of less that 53" so that you can see throughout the space when standing. These may also include areas just loaded with tables. Open Collaborative spaces often have lot's of conference rooms for private meetings as well. (Above; Photo of Teknion workstation at Zazzle.)

I will be profiling different users in future blogs to point out the plusses and minuses of each design. Stay tuned.

SRK