The WV Housing Development Fund needed their boardroom to be better suited for video conferencing. They had a very large oak table around which the room was originally designed over a decade ago. Watkins Design Works met with them in order to understand the type of technology they use and how the table needed to function. Several options were researched from formal custom boardroom tables like you’d see in a corporate headquarters (very expensive) to typical meeting room tables modified to form a V-shape (best for seeing all attendees in a video conference). The tricky parts of these approaches were the location of existing power and data boxes in the floor and aligning the tables with them so that they could be easily used and not create tripping hazards from exposed cabling.

The solution came in the form of completely custom-designed tables. Watkins Design Works designed an oval-shaped arrangement of tables which perfectly fit with the floor power and data boxes. We then partnered with Gat Creek to fabricate the tables, taking into consideration power and data access in the table tops. The WV Housing Development Fund now has a more functional boardroom, a table with a smaller footprint and sleeker design, and furniture made by a West Virginia company out of Appalachian hardwoods.