With 235 new studio desks--CDesKs--installed at the beginning of the 2007 fall semester, Rapson Hall is looking good. For more on the donors who helped make the desks possible, turn to page 4.

1. Some of the desks replaced by the CDesKs date back to the opening of Rapson Hall (then the Architecture Building) in 1960. About 150 were constructed in the college's workshop by architecture students between 1999 and 2001. All the old desks were retired and sent to the University's re-use center.
2. The CDesK was designed by W. L. Hall Workshop manager Kevin Groenke in spring 2007 and developed through iterative modeling and prototyping with the input of CDes students, staff, and faculty.
3. The final hook-and-ladder design came to Groenke in an ah-ha moment during three weeks of prototype revisions.
4. Twin Cities Metalfab manufactured all of the components for 235 CDesKs in eight weeks beginning July 19, 2007, to meet the fall semester completion deadline.
5. 78,400 pounds of steel were used to produce the desks.
6. Michigan Maple Block--the manufacturer of the desktops--has been practicing sustainable forestry in its privately held timber lots since the 1880s.
7. A crew of two staff and six students handled thousands of components and assembled all 235 CDesKs in 10 days.
8. Rapson Hall's only elevator holds one CDesK with two inches to spare.
9. New desks are in the works for studios in design, housing, and apparel studios in McNeal Hall.
10. The University assessed Groenke's design and decided to pursue commercialization--a first for the University; it has never before commercialized a furniture design. The University is currently finalizing the licensing agreement, and a framework for the agreement will be in place by the end of the year.