Airport Business - 19

SEATING MATTERS
Durability is very important when
picking hospitality-focused seating
inside a terminal.
FUTRUS

When picking seating
options, consider if your current
stock can be updated as opposed
to purchasing new equipment.
CASPER/NATRONA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

SFO will
continue its
high back gate
hold seating as
part of the new
Harvey Milk
Terminal 1.
VITRA

Creating a lounge atmosphere at
your gate means looking at new
designs across the seating spectrum.
KNOLL

needed to continue being a leader with
renovations underway in Terminal 1.
"In early discussions with them, we
were really trying to create a diverse
lounge and diverse landscape within
each of the holdrooms when it came to
the furnishings," she said. "We wanted to
push it even further than just the iconic
chair they've been using for years."
Designers pushed for the minimal
amount of high-density seating in
each gate hold because people were
only utilizing every other seat, Mercer
said. They create a mix of seating to
accommodate the mix of passenger
typologies and what they may want when
sitting at the gate.
Plans were created by starting with
the maximum amount of seating needed,
then determining how much diversity
of seating it would allow within the
terminal.
"Depending if you've got a group or
you've got children or you're a business
traveler and need to take a phone

call, we tried to create furniture in a
landscape within the hold room that
can accommodate all those different
passenger types," she said. "That led
us to finding a high-back lounge chair
because people like the sense of privacy
and refuge that offers, as well as allows
them to take phone calls in it and now
accommodating a console table or coffee
table that's more robust with power."
The lounge chairs were focused
along the window and concourse of the
gate hold areas, Mercer said, which they
termed their "fuzzy edge." All of the
tandem and high-density seating was
focused towards the middle, but they
decided to never have more than four
high-density seats in a row by disrupting
them with a side table with a lamp
integrated into it, where people can set
drinks or food.
"They already began to break up the
landscape and create a little hospitality,
residential moment with a localized
light level as if it were a little table lamp
sitting next to you with a warm glow

helping with the light level," she said.
"We created that hospitality layer in
conjunction with SFO's desire to have an
exceptional guest experience that would
rival a hotel lobby."
Mercer said community tables were
designed to look more like a library table
as opposed to heavy bar-like furniture.
They were mixed with both high and
low seats to allow ADA access and give
travelers options as to how high they
wish to sit.
"Our community tables seat 12-14
people and they sit across from each other,
but they don't need to know who each
other is because we created an island in
the middle of that has the same localized
light feature built into the library table
that was complementary to that one in
the console table," she said. "It's that
hospitality layer that you might see in a
really lovely library, hotel lobby or airline
lounge."
SFO also added high-back booths
for the gate hold areas. They allow for
families to corral each other and sit
while allowing children to eat. Business
travelers can also use it to hold meetings.
"Mostly we thought about it for
people that have to have a conference
call," she said. "They can almost think of
it as a work station, but a more inviting
work station."

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2019 \ AVIATIONPROS.COM / 19
http://www.AVIATIONPROS.COM
Airport Business

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