A Century of Wood Office Furniture-I

It was in the year 1853, the elevator was invented. This gave way to the development of high-rise buildings in the advent of urbanizing the industrial areas. Hence, tall buildings were made, and in no time, offices were a part of these sky-scraping structures. Wood, as a material that was bound to last the changing times, has become an institution in the field of office furnitures. Wood became awakened by these innovations as it was able to be cultivated from furnishings to the paper it produces. American offices expanded as well, meaning that more people are needed to boost production. As a result, office employees needed office desks, office chairs, and some filing cabinets.

Wood became the primary material to produce all the needed office furnitures, but when the 1930’s came, metal filing cabinets took over as the main material. With office furnitures made in metal, everything became similar to that of a “bull pen”, meaning that the furnitures were just laid out in rows and were crafted like as if they have not been given enough thought. The offices then looked just like classrooms, and employee privacy was not expected to be valued. However, as much as the use of metal deemed to be disadvantageous, it has come to be cheaper than wood. For companies that have only been starting, it is only practical to opt for metals for their office furnishings. This gave opportunity to the metal industry as they have seen that the demand for their product has grown. However, the total success of the metal industry came to a halt when World War II happened, because all the steel was needed by the military.

During the metal’s demise, it did not provide enough chances for the wood to regain its prevalence in the office furniture industry. When the war was over, steel furnitures gamely took their second opportunity to get their office furniture industry going. But wood decided to fight back against the aggressive marketing of the steel. An Institution was even formed in Washington to meet their competitors head-on with an equally aggressive marketing campaign. This is just the beginning of how until today, offices are still able to enjoy all the advantages of wood office furniture.