Steelcase Receives Top Honors at NeoCon 2014

CHICAGO, June 16, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Steelcase today announced that its family of brands and designers has won several top honors at NeoCon 2014, North America's largest design exhibition and conference for commercial interiors.  Awards include three Interior Design Honoring Industry People (HIP) Awards, four Best of NeoCon Awards and two Buildings Magazine Product Innovations Awards.

"We are truly honored to receive these awards, and very pleased to have what we do be so highly recognized," said Jim Keane, president and chief executive officer of Steelcase. 

Steelcase works with the world's leading organizations to help them create places that amplify the performance of their people and teams.  Among the top winning workplace innovations introduced at NeoCon this year is Susan Cain Quiet Spaces by Steelcase, a range of enclosed spaces designed in partnership with Susan Cain, author of the international bestseller Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking.  These spaces address the unique needs of introverts, who constitute one-third to one-half of all workers, by providing places to focus and rejuvenate at work.  Quiet Spaces won a HIP Award in the "Places to Concentrate" category, a Product Innovations Grand Prize from Buildings Magazine and the Best of NeoCon Editor's Choice Award.

In the first annual Interior Design HIP Awards, Susan Lyons, president of surfacing firm Designtex, was named Design Leader in the Sustainability category, while the honor of Performance Wonder was awarded to the Steelcase® Gesture® chair, the first chair designed to support our interactions with today's technologies. Additional Steelcase HIP honorees include:

• V.I.A. ™, an architectural solution featuring intelligent rooms, designed to augment human interaction by providing true acoustical privacy and elegant hosting technology
• Elective Elements®, a freestanding office system designed to address the changing workspace requirements in today's private and open-plan environments, supporting the needs of the individual, without sacrificing performance and aesthetics
• Regard®, from Steelcase Health, a line of modular seating, casegood elements, space division, power, tables and even planters designed to maximize the experience of transition spaces in healthcare and education settings.

In addition, Steelcase received the following top honors from the 25^th Annual Best of NeoCon Awards and 19th annual Buildings Magazine Product Innovation Awards:

• Best of NeoCon Editor's Choice Award for the Designtex + Wallace Sewell Collection, a range of wool fabrics designed by Designtex in partnership with woven textile design studio Wallace Sewell.
• Best of NeoCon Silver Award in the Office Accessories category and Product Innovation Merit Award from Buildings Magazine for SOTO II Worktools, a collection featuring additions designed to address real estate optimization by creating compact, multifunctional work tools and storage. 
• Best of NeoCon Silver Award in the guest seating category for <5_MY by Coalesse®. Designed by Michael Young, the <5_MY chair is made entirely of carbon fiber, one of the strongest and lightest materials available in today's world of engineering and design.

About the Awards:

The inaugural Interior Design Honoring Industry People (HIP) awards program allows industry people to celebrate industry people, recognizing pioneers in the design field as well as their solutions and creations.

The 25th annual Best of NeoCon awards, presented by Contract Magazine, honor the top new commercial interiors products introduced to the market at NeoCon. Honorees were selected from numerous entries in 39 different product categories, ranging from Architectural Products to Workplace Technologies. 

The 19th annual Buildings Magazine Product Innovation Awards spotlight the latest products that enhance the efficiency and sustainability of commercial buildings.

Awards:

• Best of NeoCon Editor's Choice Award: Susan Cain Quiet Spaces
• Best of NeoCon Editor's Choice Award: Designtex + Wallace Sewell
• Best of NeoCon Silver Award, Office Accessories: SOTO II Worktools
• Best of NeoCon Silver Award, Seating, Guest: <5_MY by Coalesse
• HIP Award, Design Leader, Sustainability: Susan Lyons, president of surfacing firm Designtex
• HIP Award, Places to Concentrate: Susan Cain Quiet Spaces
• HIP Award, Performance Wonder: Gesture 
• HIP Honoree, Cross-Market Versatility: Regard 
• HIP Honoree, Design Solution for Collaboration (Small): Elective Elements 
• HIP Honoree, Flexible Office Solution: V.I.A. 
• Product Innovations, Grand Prize: Susan Cain Quiet Spaces
• Product Innovations, Merit Award: SOTO II Worktools. 

About Steelcase Inc.

For over 100 years, Steelcase Inc. has helped to create great experiences – wherever work happens – for the world's leading organizations, across industries.  We demonstrate this through our family of brands – including Steelcase®, Coalesse®, Designtex®, Details®, PolyVision® and Turnstone®. Together, they offer a comprehensive portfolio of architecture, furniture and technology products and services designed to unlock human promise and support social, economic and environmental sustainability. We are globally accessible through a network of channels, including over 800 dealer locations. Steelcase is a global, industry-leading and publicly traded company with fiscal 2014 revenue of $3.0 billion.

SOURCE Steelcase, Inc.