Every once in awhile you get the chance to contribute to something really important. As a company, we’re quick to respond to these moments because they they give special meaning to what we do. When UCLA student Louis Tse reached out to me and shared the story of his burgeoning Bruin Shelter for homeless college students (now called Students 4 Students), I knew it was one of those moments. You see, Louis …
5 Stories from Our Sustainable Furniture Solutions Hall of Fame
When it comes to sustainable furniture solutions, we’ve had the good fortune to work with some amazing schools who are steadfastly committed to sustainability. In fact, two of our clients recently won the top two spots in Sierra’s Coolest Schools Ranking, which highlights the work of the greenest schools in the US and Canada. As a company dedicated to building the most sustainable furniture in the residence hall furniture market, we appreciate it …
Your Housing Staff Will Love This Unique Service: The One Year Walkthrough
We’ve written about sustainability extensively on this blog. And more recently, we’ve focused on one time-tested hallmark of sustainability. Namely, durability. How can you ensure that you’re getting the most for your money? Our answer to this is pretty straightforward and shapes our values. Choose furniture made from the highest quality materials with superior construction techniques. That way, you get the most durable product that weathers the rugged demands of life in a …
How To Increase Room Occupancy When Your School Has Limited Space
Do you struggle with limited residential space and climbing enrollment? Given the trends in declining college enrollment, it’s a good problem to have. You need to house more students but you can’t exactly create space out of thin air. Or can you? In many respects, this is a design issue. And over the years, we have engineered solutions to help schools like yours deal with this same issue. In fact, …
How Our UV Finish Improves Your Indoor Air Quality
Have you ever wondered about that funny smell coming from your new wood floor or your new wood furniture? Or maybe, like me, you felt a little light-headed after being in a building where you encountered that same smell. It turns out that subtle suspicion you were harboring in the back of your mind—It can’t be good for me to be breathing this in!—was accurate. Volatile Organic Compounds Are Dangerous You …
A Study in How to Include Your Students in Selecting Furniture
How do you select your residence hall furniture? Do you leave it up to just a few key people? Do you get input from a wide array of departments like residence life, facilities, housing, and the Dean’s office? That’s pretty standard, and it makes sense for obvious reasons. But have you ever considered including your students in the selection process? Why would you want to do that? Including Students In …
Want to Empower Your Students? Include Them In Your Purchasing Process
Students are a passionate lot. They’re idealistic too. So it can be a valuable and edifying exercise to include them in your decision-making process as you choose your residence hall furniture. That’s exciting to me. Why? Because at DCI, we’re also passionate and idealistic. We believe it’s possible to craft world-class furniture that’s completely sustainable at the same time. And these days, more schools are using their purchasing power to set an …
Video: Making Sustainable Hardwood Furniture in the White Mountains
We’re lucky. Want to know why? Because we get to make sustainable hardwood furniture in one of the most beautiful regions on earth: the White Mountains of New Hampshire and the Green Mountains of Vermont. The DCI factory is located in Lisbon New Hampshire, and our sawmill is less than an hour down the road in South Royalton, Vermont. This is the place where I grew up. I was raised in the house …
PSU: Installing Sustainably Harvested & Manufactured Wood Furniture
Almost ten years ago, we partnered with Plymouth State University (PSU) to furnish their state-of-the-art ecologically sensitive residence hall, Langdon Woods. We continue to work with PSU on new projects to this day. Building Awareness And Empowering Choices One reason we take sustainability so seriously is because we want to inspire green values in the next generation. It’s important that students understand their school is investing in the future of the planet. More specifically, students …
Case Study: University of California Irvine
Summary: In response to limited space and surging enrollment, DCI and UC Irvine created an innovative and environmentally friendly way to increase occupancy in a new state of the art residence hall, UC Irvine Mesa Court, while designing a feature-rich envrironment for laptop-driven learning. Case Study UC Irvine: One Of The Greenest Universities in America Name: UC Irvine Mesa Court Expansion Location: Irvine, CA Size: 935 sets Building Type: Multi-use Residence Hall Project Team: UCI, Hensel Phelps, Mithūn, …