Herman Miller Customers Recognized for Excellence in Learning Space Design

Herman Miller, Inc. is pleased to announce that two of its customers are being honored in Penton Media’s American School & University 2012 Educational Interiors Showcase. SIUE Charter High School, STEM Learning Center and Saint Louis University (SLU), Reinert Center for Teaching Excellence Learning Studio were tapped for the annual competition that spotlights the nation’s most effective learning environments.

“This recognition speaks to the critical role design plays in addressing change in education,” said Jeff Vredevoogd, director of Herman Miller Education. “We’re proud to have helped both institutions bring their visions to life and create spaces that will better serve current and future students’ needs.”

SIUE East St. Louis Charter High School in St. Louis, Illinois was awarded a Bronze Citation for its STEM Learning Center. Through partnering with Herman Miller, SIUE created the 1,300 square-foot Learning Center to spark student interest in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields and to encourage practical, interactive learning in a relaxed environment. The resulting collaborative classroom features flexible furnishings like writeable glass panels and wall panels that double as whiteboards for brainstorming and group work, increased accessibility to internet connections and additional multimedia resources.

The Reinert Center for Teaching Excellence Learning Studio at Saint Louis University in St. Louis, Missouri was recognized for outstanding design. With the help of Herman Miller’s Learning Spaces Research Program, the space was designed to enable SLU to test out the classroom of the future on a small scale before making a campus-wide design decision. The learning studio supports new teaching methodologies and delivers a more engaging, collaborative and flexible learning experience for contemporary teachers and students. It features a range of mobile chairs, tables and easels that can be reconfigured on the fly, as well as high-tech elements like a multi-screen video wall.

In its 22nd year, the American School & University awards are judged by a jury of American Institute of Architects (AIA) members and education administrators on the following considerations: purposeful design, cost-efficient solutions and planning, inviting and engaging spaces, designs that create new solutions and uses, sensitivity to the community, transparent and integrated technology and innovation and creativity. Both SIUE and SLU are featured in a recent edition of the magazine and on SchoolDesigns.com.

About Herman Miller
Herman Miller works for a better world around you—with inspiring designs, inventive technologies and strategic services that help people do great things and organizations to perform at their best, improving the human experience wherever people work, heal, learn, and live. Its award-winning products and services generated more than $1.7 billion in revenue in fiscal 2012. Innovative business practices and a commitment to social responsibility have also helped establish Herman Miller as a recognized global company. A past recipient of the Smithsonian Institution’s Cooper-Hewitt "National Design Award,” in 2012, Herman Miller again received the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s top rating in its annual Corporate Equality Index and was also named, for the ninth consecutive year, to the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index. The company is also named among the 50 Best U.S. Manufacturers by Industry Week. Herman Miller trades on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol MLHR.Body