client news
Auditorium refurbishment creates greater flexibility for conferencing
and training facilities at Scottish Natural Heritage, Battleby
A capital fund investment towards the upgrade and refurbishment of
Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH)'s conference, training and office
facilities at Battleby, Perth includes an installation of Verco office
furniture.
SNH is a non-departmental public body responsible through Ministers to
the Scottish Parliament. SNH's purpose is to promote the care and
improvement, responsible enjoyment, greater understanding and
appreciation, sustainable use of the natural heritage, now and for future
generations.
Battleby's conference, training and meetings room facilities are used by
SNH and associated organisations to present, promote and inform people of
the above aims.
The octagonal shaped
Auditorium at the Conference centre originally had an amphitheatre style
layout for 160 tiered seating with a raised stage. However, this layout
provided offered limited versatility and restricted events in the
Auditorium to rigid formats.
A key objective of the Auditorium refurbishment was to create greater
flexibility in the use of the Auditorium space and to caterer for an
increase in the frequency of its use. Therefore, the floor was raised (by
around one metre to height of stage), levelled and a new Audio Visual
(AV) booth, AV equipment and new lighting system installed.
To complement the new interior and provide the required versatility in
the auditorium 108 electronic retractable seats were installed. In
addition, 90 linking and stackable Axa 686 chrome-frame conference chairs
together with several flip-top tables (on wheels) were sourced from the
VERCO range by local office furniture specialist Archibald McKellar in
conjunction with project architects Burnet Bell.
As well as the aesthetic gains, key benefits of the new installation are
ease and speed of furniture reconfiguration, says SNH Service Delivery
Manager, Colin Macaskill.
""Levelling the ground floor area has provided a larger footprint for us
to operate with" he says.
"The stacking chairs met a brief which mixed high levels of support - we
required seating that would remain comfortable for up to three hours use
at a time - with adaptability.
"The Verco chairs look good and are easy to set up, are linkable, and
equally simple to take down and store.
"The flip top tables complement them well," he adds. "They hinge and so
are equally easy to configure and can be wheeled away simply and quickly
to store."
Colin is particularly pleased with the added flexibility that the
furniture affords the refurbished auditorium.
"We have more space that's easier to configure and consequently increased
uptake of use overall," he says.
"It's enabled us to re-purpose the space to suit our users so much faster
that we have been able to increase the number of events held at the
auditorium from two per week to three to four, making fuller and more
profitable use of the facility."
www.snh.gov.uk
www.mckellaroffice.co.uk
www.burnetbell.com
www.verco.co.uk
ends
Issued January 2009 on behalf of VERCO Office Furniture Ltd by
petermuir public relations
Whiteleaf Business Centre, Buckingham Industrial Park, Buckingham MK18
1TF, UK
tel 00 44 (0) 1296 715228 fax 00 44 (0)1296 715486
www.pmpr.info
EDITOR NOTE:
About Verco
Founded in 1912, VERCO is one Britain's best known and respected office
furniture manufacturers. Take this link for the full story:
http://www.verco.co.uk/comp-history.htm
