Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, October 21, 1994 TAG: 9410220059
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Design Business Interiors Inc. of Roanoke was awarded a contract Thursday for $136,640 to supply 450 ergonomically correct seating units designed to keep sitters' rumps happy for at least eight hours.
The chair design was selected after a dozen samples were sat on, whirled around, leaned back in and generally pawed by some of the top staff of Roanoke municipal government and Virginia Tech.
For months, Roanoke's city manager, its finance director, Tech vice presidents and a former city councilman, who are members of the commission overseeing the new conference center, have popped in and out of chairs like kindergarten pupils.
"I don't think they left any stones unturned," said Glenn Cronk, an owner of Design Business.
No decision about the $42 million Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center project was any more crucial, said Brian Wishneff, acting director of the commission.
Before construction started, the officials went on a several-state tour of similar centers. Everywhere they went, they heard that comfortable chairs were among the most important considerations, Wishneff said.
From that point on, the commission has been "obsessed with chairs," he said.
Cronk, who owns Design Business with his wife, Mary Ann, said the company was happy to get the contract. The chairs, which will be manufactured by Patrician Co. in High Point, N.C., will come in two styles, a high-back model for the board room and a low-back version for meeting rooms.
It is Design Business' second contract on the hotel project. Last month, the company got a $65,725 contract to provide some of the center lighting.
In other business at Thursday's meeting, the commission yanked the $25,000 contract with a Maryland food service equipment supplier and awarded $2,290 of the contract to Swartz Restaurant Supply of Roanoke and the rest to Thompson & Little Inc. of Fayetteville, N.C.
Regional Restaurant Equipment Co. of Columbia, Md., failed to provide information required in the contract, the commission said.
The group also voted to dispense with the sealed-bid method of selecting contractors when it comes time to choose original art for the center. Its resolution noted that the low-bid selection is not a "practical" way to get "aesthetically pleasing" art. Instead, the commission will publish a legal request for proposals for supplying art, for which $50,000 has been budgeted.
The commission agreed to extend its deadline to Oct. 31 for the sale of engraved bricks for the hotel-conference center's Wells Avenue entrance.
The bricks cost $50 each. Information is available by calling 981-1170.
by CNB