Customer Stories

Turning an Old School College Dining Hall into a Highly Utilized Student Center Not every college has extra space on campus to experiment with modern designs, furniture and features, but Orange County Community College (SUNY Orange) in Middletown, N.Y., just happened to have an aging, underutilized cafeteria that was ripe for an overhaul. The cafeteria...

Bartow County School System Learning Hubs: A Transformation into Modern Media Center Spaces Bartow County School System - Cartersville, GA 14,000 students 12 elementary schools 4 middle schools 3 high schools District Transforms 19 Different Media Centers into Innovative Learning Hubs Taking a single media center and transforming it into a modern learning hub can...

Transforming Oregon State University Residential Hall Spaces with MiEN Furniture In 2022, Oregon State University (OSU) was seeking a furniture partner to help them transform the social spaces in four residence halls on campus: Poling Hall, Cauthorn Hall, Halsell Hall, and McNary Hall. By updating these spaces, OSU aimed to foster a sense of community...

Hampton University Classroom Modernization: Redefining the College Experience for Collaboration, Engagement, and Comfort With roots that reach deeply into U.S. history and the African American experience, Hampton University in Virginia has its sights set squarely on the horizons of the global community of the 21st century. Along with being one of the top historically-Black universities...

Echo Trail Middle School: Innovation Through Intentional Design Echo Trail Middle School, located in Jefferson County, Kentucky, strives to inspire its students to reach their full potential through an innovative space through intentional design that provides a hands-on, collaborative learning experience. In an interview with Dr. Kara Ammerman, the principal of Echo Trail, we explored...

New Northeast Lakeview College STEM Facility Prepares Students for High-Demand Careers Located in one of the fastest-growing areas of the state, Northeast Lakeview College (NLC), in Universal City, TX, is one of five Alamo Colleges and was born out of need to serve a region that was welcoming a high volume of new residents and...

Holy Trinity Catholic School Creates Multipurpose Space That Caters to Student Testing Student test performance is a hot topic in educational circles, where there is continued debate over whether some students will test better in informal, comfortable environments. Holy Trinity Catholic School in Louisville, Kentucky is betting on the fact that environmental factors do indeed...

Hudson Middle School: Empowering Students and Engaging the Community Hudson Middle School, located in Jefferson County, Kentucky, is a community-focused middle school that is self-described as the “School for the People.” Hudson is the first middle school in West Louisville to be built in 91 years and welcomes every student from the area regardless of...

Big Picture High School's Innovative Learning Spaces: From Office Space to Classroom Big Picture Learning activates learning opportunities through its community of more than 275 global schools and a suite of initiatives. Through its multiple fellowships; outside-of-school learning opportunities; and healthy living and learning partnerships, the organization also serves as an “incubator” for the next...

How Burke County Schools Are Modernizing Media Centers for the 21st Century Two years ago, Burke County Schools in Morganton, N.C., received Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funding earmarked for helping the 12,000-student district manage the negative impacts of the COVID pandemic. The 1:1 district has 27 schools, many of which featured aging...

Megan Cope Elementary’s Media Center Gets a Modern Facelift When Emily Price, Ed.D., came onboard as Megan Cope Elementary School’s new principal in 2021, she quickly learned that the San Jacinto, Calif.-based school’s library was in need of a media center modernization. After speaking with Renee Moore, the school’s library media tech specialist, about some...

Creating a Modern Space Where Teachers and Staff Eat, Relax and Socialize Since 2007, Atlantic County Institute of Technology (ACIT) in Mays Landing, N.J., has been providing a comprehensive high school education that incorporates all academic courses, advanced placement (AP) courses and vocational-technical opportunities. Serving about 1,700 students—a number that will soon increase to 2,000—the...

Elementary School Creates a Modern Media Center from a Blank Slate When Voorhees Township Public Schools in Voorhees, N.J., decided to give all of its media centers makeovers, Osage Elementary School was one of four elementary schools that was more than ready for the experience. The 600-student school would become the first in the district...

New Arizona High School Blends Functionality with Comfort in its Common Areas When Crismon High School in Queen Creek, Ariz., opened its doors for the first time for the 2022-23 school year, the school welcomed more than 1,000 students into its new facility. Its administrators had spent an entire year planning out the new school,...

Florida High School Infuses Collaborative Learning into the Curriculum Like many schools in the U.S.—where at last count the average public school building was 55+ years old—Mulberry High School in Florida was working from a facility that was built almost 70 years ago. Ready for an overhaul and equipped with funding from a local sales...

Modernization Project - H.B. Whitehorne Middle School Verona, NJ As STEM became more popular in Verona schools over the years, it was apparent that one thing was missing at H.B, Whitehorne Middle School (HBW): a STEM lab learning space. Over the winter of 2021, Technology, Engineering and Design teacher Julia Zambrano began working with colleagues...

Making a School Media Center a Collaborative and Fun Learning Space With about 275 students in grades pre-K through 8, St. Stephen Catholic School in Riverview, Fla., is well aware of the tectonic shifts that have taken place in the educational sector over the last two decades. And while the 21-year-old school is considered “young”...

A Look at Kirkland Ranch Academy of Innovation Kirkland Ranch Academy of Innovation's (KRAI) learning space is Pasco County’s newest public magnet high school, opening its doors for the 2022-23 school year to 9th and 10th graders. In the coming two years, the Wesley Chapel campus will add students to grades 11 and 12 to...

High School Designs with MiEN Furniture a Flexible, Collaborative, College-like Student Union Josh LeSage, High School Principal at Valley Christian Schools in Chandler, Ariz., recently turned to MiEN for help designing and furnishing its student union space with MiEN collaborative and flexible furniture. With nearly 1,100 K-12 students, including 485 high schoolers, the school is...

Giving Educators a Contemporary Teacher Space to Decompress When Voorhees Township Public Schools approached MiEN to help design six teacher space lounges, the district’s primary goal was to create contemporary teacher spaces where educators could have lunch, socialize and decompress. In addition, some of the spaces were intended to support teacher collaboration, common planning, and...

Transforming an Aging High School Library into a Modern, Collaboration Lab As a public high school that offers a rigorous college prep curriculum, University High School (UHS) serves students in grades 9-12 who are committed to success in high school and beyond. Through a partnership with Wayne State University, all of UHS’ seniors attend class...

Creating Collaborative Spaces for Students Post-Remote Learning When Lamphere High School welcomed its 730 students back on campus for the 2021-22 school year, it wanted every student to have a Chromebook. This would not only eliminate the need for computer labs, but it would also free up physical space in the school’s media center (which...

Transforming a Nearly Century-Old School Building into a Modern Learning SpaceMiEN and Staff at Robert D. Johnson Elementary School transformed a learning space out of a nearly 100-year-old building. Open since 1923, Robert D. Johnson Elementary School of Fort Thomas, Ken., will soon hit its 100-year-old milestone, but not before transforming its aging buildings into...

Cumberland Trace Elementary School Creates Active Teaching & Learning SpacesWorking with MiEN, the school outfits its newly-constructed building with seating, tables and fixtures that support active teaching and learning spaces for groups of all sizes. When Cumberland Trace Elementary School in Bowling Green, Ken., set out to construct a new school building this year, it...

JetCo Federal’s New Collaborative Workspace is Inspiring and MotivatingGovernment contractor works with MiEN to design a new collaborative workspace, inviting space for its growing workforce. Founded in 2007, JetCo Federal is a supply chain management and logistics firm that works with the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). Focused on developing efficient warehouses, the Grand Rapids,...

Chicago Middle School Transforms Older Building into a Collaborative Learning SpaceWorking with MiEN, this top-ranking middle school in Illinois turns an older building into a collaborative learning space. Taking older structures and turning them into modern, collaborative learning spaces is no easy task, but some schools are facing the project head-on and achieving their goals...

A Modern Classroom for the Workforce of the FutureMySchool@Kent overhauls its learning space to meet the needs of its learners and help them prepare for success in the workforce of the future. A vital program for the Kent ISD in Grand Rapids, Mich., MySchool@Kent provides an engaging, world-class blended modern classroom that supports all students....

Florida Charter School Develops a New, Highly-Collaborative School BuildingHillsborough County Public Schools A part of the Hillsborough County Public Schools in Tampa, Fla., Literacy Leadership Technology (LLT) Academy was founded in 2005 with the goal of creating a place for middle school students to focus on technology with a highly collaborative school building. It would...

Community Donor Transformed Classroom for 21st Century Learning Greenville, MI— 2/16/2021 —   Some Students at St. Charles Catholic Schools are learning in a new “state of the art” classroom, thanks to a gift of new furniture.   It was donated by MiEN Environments, an educational furniture manufacturer based in Grand Rapids, and The Currie...

Brand New Learning Space Design at Belmont Elementary SchoolWith MiEN as its space design partner, Hillsborough County Public Schools creates a modern media center for its brand-new elementary school. On track to outpace the nation’s population growth between now and 2024, Florida’s Hillsborough County is growing by 8.7% annually (compared to 3.9% for the U.S....

MiEN Helps Jasper County Schools Design & Outfit its New CATE FacilityFrom comfortable furniture to vibrant color schemes to charging stations, Jasper County Schools’ new CATE facility is an inviting space that’s durable enough to stand the test of time. A believer in the value of hands-on educational experiences, Jasper County Schools has had a...

The Living Room Concept at Deer Path Middle School Lake Forest School District works with MiEN to rewrite the playbook on how to build out a modern, collaborative middle school science lab. It’s been nearly three years since a group of administrators and directors at Deer Path Middle School first sat down and planned out...

Dare County School Builds Amazing New Media Center After Hurricane DorianWhen Cape Hatteras Secondary School’s library was destroyed by a hurricane, the school turned to MiEN to help it come back even stronger and better. In September 2019, Hurricane Dorian ripped through Dare County, N.C. with a vengeance, leaving behind a trail of destruction that...

Creating Student Centers Focused on Optimizing Student Success Beyond High School The Education Foundation of Sarasota County works with MiEN to develop innovative student success centers for high school students attending Sarasota County Schools. Focused on supporting Sarasota County Schools’ students, teachers, and schools, the Education Foundation of Sarasota County is a non-profit that works...

Districtwide Modernization Project Transforms Media Centers into Activity HubsHere’s how one 10-school district in Michigan worked with MiEN to transform its aging media centers into activity hubs that all students are excited to be a part of. Like many school districts, Midland Public Schools in Michigan had to come to terms with the fact that...

Flexible, Modular Classroom Spaces Designed for Teachers and ScholarsCareer-based high school in Kentucky pulls out all of the stops when creating modular classroom spaces for its new, 180,000sf facility Focused on providing education and experience in career fields, Boone County Schools’ Ignite Institute is creating a reality where industry and education work together to ensure...

Slate Run Elementary Implements Unique, Flexible Furniture in its Brand-New School Building Working with MiEN, this Indiana school took two years to build a brand-new facility that supports collaborative learning, small-group instruction, and project-based learning with flexible furniture. Outfitting an existing school building with modern flexible furniture is one thing, but taking a ground-up approach...

New Albany High School Uses Creative Multipurpose Room Design to Maximize its Space This Indiana high school worked with MiEN to create an extremely versatile multipurpose space that teachers and students love When New Albany High School got the opportunity to transform its existing media center into a multipurpose space, it immediately surveyed all of...

West Rowan Elementary Creates Modern, Engaging Learning Spaces When Woodleaf Elementary and Cleveland Elementary consolidated to form West Rowan Elementary School in 2019, both predecessor schools were already proponents of engaging learning space seating as part of the instructional process. Students had various seating options to choose from. “It wasn’t all just desks and chairs,”...

Georgetown High School Transforms its Media Center Space to be Student-Centric A two-year plan to upgrade an aging media center space culminates into an environment where flexible furniture supports a wide range of academia and social activities on campus. With about 950 students in grades 9-12, Georgetown High School in South Carolina was in the...