Each year, the design world convenes at NeoCon in Chicago as more than 500 exhibiting companies unveil thousands of the industry’s most cutting edge, beautiful, and innovative products. I had a chance to attend the 2019 event, which took place June 10-12. Here are my nine favorite new products from NeoCon.
1. Watson Furniture Group – Cloud 9
This agile and mobile workstation is perfect for hot desk environments. Stations can be turned, rotated, rolled, and angled, connecting to countless configurations. Ideal for space saving while still providing plenty of usable and effective storage. This piece will function efficiently in a variety of office environments.
2. Andreu World – Conference Tables: Reverse Wood & Status
These tables bring a high-end design at an affordable price. One is solid ash and the other you can mix and match with a variety of tops, heights, and power configurations.
3. Clarus Glassboards – Flex Wall
These room dividers have a simple, elegant shape and add dimension to any space, as the glass follows a concave bowing to reach the floor. They are also highly functional with a hidden piece in the base that allows users to pick them up and easily roll them without having an exposed mobile base.
4. CF Stinson – designMix
CF Stinson came to play this NeoCon, including showcasing their new online tool, designMix. This free tool for designers is simple, easy to use, and provides excellent assistance when choosing color and fabric pallets.
5. Haworth – Digital Knitting
Haworth digital knitting for furniture is an innovative way to produce textiles. It allows for designers to completely customize each piece, all with zero material waste.
6. HBF – Lost & Found Fabrics
These fabrics look handmade but are extremely durable. Commercial textiles are expected to last longer, wear better, and be higher quality than ever before. Lost & Found is a creative option.
7. OFS – Obeya Room Division System
Rich wood tones in this room division system are unique, warming up an office space and making it feel more like home. Not to mention, the configurations and accessories are seemingly endless: cork board, slatted wood walls, counters, dry erase surfaces, curtains, frosted glass; you can practically build an office from it.
8. Steelcase - Flex Collection
If you have highly mobile and collaborative teams, Steelcase Flex Collection is a great option. Specifically designed for spontaneity, you can stay in the space and reconfigure the system to suit any office task, adapting on demand. When you’re done, convenient storage carts allow you to pack up and roll away, saving space and helping to maintain multifunction rooms.
9. Milliken – Change Agent Carpet
This modular carpet collection has two options: Brushed Metal or Magnetic Field. Brushed Metal features unidirectional movement in gradient alternating tones, while Magnetic Field features multi-directional movement with coarse accents. These carpets offer high-performance without sacrificing luxury design.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mary Bartlett, AIA, RID, LEED AP, is a Partner and interior architecture leader with Marmon Mok Architecture
Related Stories
Museums | Aug 11, 2010
Design guidelines for museums, archives, and art storage facilities
This column diagnoses the three most common moisture challenges with museums, archives, and art storage facilities and provides design guidance on how to avoid them.
| Aug 11, 2010
Broadway-style theater headed to Kentucky
One of Kentucky's largest performing arts venues should open in 2011—that's when construction is expected to wrap up on Eastern Kentucky University's Business & Technology Center for Performing Arts. The 93,000-sf Broadway-caliber theater will seat 2,000 audience members and have a 60×24-foot stage proscenium and a fly loft.
| Aug 11, 2010
Citizenship building in Texas targets LEED Silver
The Department of Homeland Security's new U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services facility in Irving, Texas, was designed by 4240 Architecture and developed by JDL Castle Corporation. The focal point of the two-story, 56,000-sf building is the double-height, glass-walled Ceremony Room where new citizens take the oath.
| Aug 11, 2010
Carpenters' union helping build its own headquarters
The New England Regional Council of Carpenters headquarters in Dorchester, Mass., is taking shape within a 1940s industrial building. The Building Team of ADD Inc., RDK Engineers, Suffolk Construction, and the carpenters' Joint Apprenticeship Training Committee, is giving the old facility a modern makeover by converting the existing two-story structure into a three-story, 75,000-sf, LEED-certif...
| Aug 11, 2010
Utah research facility reflects Native American architecture
A $130 million research facility is being built at University of Utah's Salt Lake City campus. The James L. Sorenson Molecular Biotechnology Building—a USTAR Innovation Center—is being designed by the Atlanta office of Lord Aeck & Sargent, in association with Salt-Lake City-based Architectural Nexus.
| Aug 11, 2010
San Bernardino health center doubles in size
Temecula, Calif.-based EDGE was awarded the contract for California State University San Bernardino's health center renovation and expansion. The two-phase, $4 million project was designed by RSK Associates, San Francisco, and includes an 11,000-sf, tilt-up concrete expansion—which doubles the size of the facility—and site and infrastructure work.
| Aug 11, 2010
Goettsch Partners wins design competition for Soochow Securities HQ in China
Chicago-based Goettsch Partners has been selected to design the Soochow Securities Headquarters, the new office and stock exchange building for Soochow Securities Co. Ltd. The 21-story, 441,300-sf project includes 344,400 sf of office space, an 86,100-sf stock exchange, classrooms, and underground parking.
| Aug 11, 2010
New hospital expands Idaho healthcare options
Ascension Group Architects, Arlington, Texas, is designing a $150 million replacement hospital for Portneuf Medical Center in Pocatello, Idaho. An existing facility will be renovated as part of the project. The new six-story, 320-000-sf complex will house 187 beds, along with an intensive care unit, a cardiovascular care unit, pediatrics, psychiatry, surgical suites, rehabilitation clinic, and ...
| Aug 11, 2010
Colonnade fixes setback problem in Brooklyn condo project
The New York firm Scarano Architects was brought in by the developers of Olive Park condominiums in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn to bring the facility up to code after frame out was completed. The architects designed colonnades along the building's perimeter to create the 15-foot setback required by the New York City Planning Commission.
