Unique Furniture Enhances Learning

National Office Furniture

National Office Furniture provided furniture that gave TCALC classrooms the look and feel of a modern workplace.

The Topeka Center for Advanced Learning and Careers (TCALC) is an innovative high school program that provides students the opportunity to focus on professional skills like project management, business ethics, time management, teamwork, and creativity. Through a project-based curriculum, students receive authentic exposure to corporate environments while developing the skills needed to succeed in 21st-century professions.

The facility promotes this progressive approach through its variety of learning spaces. The facility was designed as if students are fully immersed in a professional culture, and offers collaboration spaces, multi-use areas, private offices, and team rooms to accommodate the unique curriculum.

To prepare students for high-skill, high-demand jobs, TCALC offers a variety of hands-on experiences and features spaces that encourage interaction within a professional atmosphere. Maneuver tables and Jiminy seating provide mobility, allowing students and faculty to reconfigure and accommodate their needs. Fringe, Reno, and Swift lounge furniture create a variety of collaboration spaces and casual commons areas. Private offices support flexibility with Tessera casegoods, while the Footings, Strassa, and WaveWorks tables provide unique gathering and meeting spaces.

Through four pathways (Engineering and Advanced Manufacturing, Bioscience and Biomedical, Business, and Human Services) TCALC is teaching business ethics and skills within a professional atmosphere, allowing students to become more comfortable in a business culture, setting them up for success in their careers after graduation.

“Our goal is to have a unique, welcoming, and thought-provoking educational space which had the look and feel of a modern day corporate business environment. National Office Furniture was instrumental in helping us achieve that goal,” says Larry Robbins, deputy superintendent of Operations, Topeka Public Schools.

www.NationalOfficeFurniture.com

This article originally appeared in the School Planning & Management September 2018 issue of Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • Elevating Campus Maintenance: How Power Wash Drones are Transforming Educational Facilities

    As today’s campuses grow larger and more architecturally complex, keeping exteriors clean, safe, and inviting has never been tougher. Facilities leaders are under constant pressure to stretch budgets, meet safety standards, and support sustainability goals—all while tackling the stubborn challenge of exterior cleaning.

  • UNT Dallas Holds Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony for $100M STEM Building

    The University of North Texas at Dallas in Dallas, Texas, recently celebrated the opening of its new, $100-million STEM Building, according to local news. The ceremony on Dec. 2 preceded the first day of classes in the facility on Jan. 12, 2026.

  • Pittsburgh High School Upgrades Athletics Facilities’ Technology

    Plum Senior High School in Pittsburgh, Penn., recently partnered with South-Dakota-based Daktronics through the We’re All Mustangs Here Foundation to upgrade the technology in its athletics facilities, according to a news release. Daktronics designed, built, and installed new LED video displays and finished the project in time for the beginning of the 2025 high-school football season.

  • Texas State University Completes Stadium Renovations

    Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas, recently announced that it has completed a series of additions and renovations to its football stadium, according to a news release. Formerly known as the Bobcat Stadium End Zone Complex, the Johnny and Nathali Weisman Football Performance Center is an 85,000-square-foot expansion featuring hospitality spaces, banquet spaces, exterior concourses, and upgrades to the field house.

Digital Edition