During the pandemic, all kinds of businesses have had to adapt to a "new normal." For some, it meant having employees work from home where they juggled tasks while tutoring school-age children doing distant learning. Other companies needed to find ways to get their employees back in the office as quickly and safely as possible. Such was the case for one Pittsburgh-based company that was a tenant in a Burns Scalo Real Estate building.

The problem for Burns Scalo was that the tenant's open-office layout didn't mesh well with the Centers for Disease Control's recommendations concerning social distancing and divided workspaces. Burns Scalo needed a company that could deliver customized solutions quickly, so it reached out to Consolidated Displays Inc., a Pittsburgh-based exhibit house.

Derek Librecht, vice president at Consolidated Displays, met with the building rep and did a walkthrough of the office space, taking measurements and noting the layout and obstacles. To meet the current CDC requirements, Consolidated Displays had to add height to existing divider walls, along with dividers to desks where none existed. Burns Scalo also wanted the additions to blend with the existing furniture so the design would be cohesive. Finally, the solution needed to be substantial enough to last for years since the duration of social distancing requirements still wasn't known.

Librecht hand sketched a solution that included more than 30 dividers of various sizes. Once done, he contacted Classic Exhibits Inc, an exhibit builder based in Portland, OR. Classic Exhibits designed and then rendered the project for the client's approval using PlaceLyft (a division of Classic Exhibits) office, retail, and personal safety solutions.

Extrusion and acrylic cubical dividers were built to the specific dimensions of each desk. The extrusions were powder-coated white to match existing cubical furniture. Adjustable PlaceLyft height extenders with clear acrylic were added to the top of the office walls to ensure the total height reached 6 feet.

In no time, Consolidated Displays had the walls between desks raised, cubical dividers installed, and the office space squared away. The tenant was excited for employees to return to a safe space and get back to business. "The project might be outside the 'normal' of what we do in the trade show industry," Librecht said, "but extrusions and infills are perfectly suitable for space dividers. And Classic Exhibits' standard assortment of extrusions worked perfectly, as expected."

Librecht believes that trade show and events companies are uniquely suited to help provide customized solutions to challenges raised by the pandemic. "While the rest of the world thinks of these items as 'new,' for those of us in the trade show industry, we simply took an 'old' everyday solution and adapted it for a new, modern solution," he said. "It's a perfect example of 'no need to reinvent the wheel.' Let's just use that wheel in a way we never thought of before!"