Insight Into The Selection Process of Gilman Furniture

Gilman School is home to a variety of furniture and designs that may go unnoticed or underappreciated. The design process for the Gilman aesthetic is complicated and requires people to reach a consensus through many iterations of designs. 

Each year, Gilman undergoes improvements in carpeting, lights, and furniture. According to Gilman’s Chief Operating Officer Wes Hummer, “There's always going to be improvements done to schools over the years, especially when the furniture or the paint or the carpet or the lighting get kind of worn out, kind of tired.”

For a bigger project, a general vision for a space is drafted and is then presented to the stakeholders. In this meeting, the goal is to agree on a certain theme, color palette, lighting orientation and determine how the furniture might blend with the colors. Then, the ideas go through the design consultants who present options for designs and ideas to incorporate everything. After the stakeholders see these plans, they collaborate again and agree on designs that fit well. This selection process takes years as student committees, faculty and staff members, and department and division heads are involved. 

The plans for the new furniture this year started as early as 2021 and 2022, as Mr. Hummer says, “We started thinking about what we can do for a refreshing look, a rebranding look, or renovations, if you will.” These furniture plans are not limited to the Upper School, as the same has been done with the Lower School and the Middle School. Recently, you can see the brand new look of Carey Hall, and younger students in the Lower and Middle Schools are seeing renovations to their respective lobbies. 

Gilman creates their budget based on the final ideas, and it must account for all the minor changes, such as furniture swaps and technical changes like lighting, broken furniture, or mechanical issues. Many people have a say in the design process, and Gilman finds it important to incorporate multiple views from people working within the school. As Mr. Hummer said, “We like to have faculty and staff members involved since there’s a lot of people that, as you know, use these spaces, and we want to make sure that they’re sharing their vision and their input.”

According to Mr. Hummer, “Every piece of furniture that we buy has a warranty. It just depends on the type of furniture, certain fabrics and certain leathers and certain woods or different types of warranties. You know, the type of fabric you see on the upholstered chairs are, you know, high-end, very durable fabrics.” Mr. Hummer highlighted the importance of the durability of the furniture.

Overall, Gilman seems to be very active in developing the furniture and the whole aesthetic. Whether the impact is small or big, Gilman consistently makes an effort to help the continuous improvement of the furniture.