Faculty Lounges: Rooms with a View?

As my colleagues will attest, I am passionate about interior design, and the title of this wonderful Blog inspired today’s post about…faculty lounges. I think most law schools have them, but I doubt they’re often used for their intended purpose. How many people really meet their colleagues in the room designated for faculty musings? Could the design of these rooms be to blame, or have we become a more informal lot who instead prefer impromptu visits in personal offices and hallways? What would it take to inspire more faculty to congregate in these spaces?

Comments

[Jacqueline Lipton]

Strangely enough, a colleague was speaking with me about this very topic yesterday and was indeed suggesting we could, with very little effort and small expenditure of resources, spruce up our faculty lounge so it was a little more inviting. It might be fun if we could post photos of our respective faculty lounges and compare them, although I'm not 100% sure how to achieve that. Our faculty lounge is well located on the faculty offices floor, although, to be fair, our clinicians have offices on another floor, so while the faculty lounge might be a nice prospect for some of us, it's not as immediately accessible to everyone. We had this problem at a school I worked at in Australia. The faculty was dispersed over three floors and the faculty lounge was on the lowest of the three, which caused some people on the highest floor to avoid two flights of stairs and effectively start a bit of a "split-off coffee club" upstairs for a while.

[Kelly Anders]

Thanks for the comment, Jacqui. Photos would be great, if we could figure out a way to post them. It would be especially interesting to see "before" and "after" images. I agree that it is possible to spruce up these spaces for nominal costs; sometimes, rearranging furniture alone can make all the difference. One of my favorite decorating shows is "Free Style," which involves decorating with what one already owns. The same concept could be used in law school environments. I also agree about the location issue. If a lounge is inconveniently located, it won't inspire visits, no matter how appealing it may be.

[Kim Krawiec]

I think you're right Kelly that the room can make a difference (and Jacqui's point about room location is well taken also, although I suppose it's harder to do anything about that, short of a complete building renovation). And for the record, Kelly, you can come to my house anytime and put your design interests to good use.

[Kelly Anders]

Thanks for the invitation, Kim. I'm always up for a new decorating project. ;-)

[Jacqui L.]

I should also note that despite a few shortcomings, our faculty lounge does indeed have a very nice view - which I have greatly appreciated at times, particularly when faculty meetings run long.