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Events

1 - 50 of 198

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Date	Title	Category
1966	“Operation Skydrop” To demonstrate the durability of the 450 Series chair a skydiver is strapped to the chair. At 1,000 feet the skydiver disengages from the chair, which hits the ground at approximately 100 mph. The base... View	Products
1995	“Rooms That Work” Introduced A collaborative project among Steelcase, AT&T and Marriott, the intent is to enhance office services for travelers. “Rooms that Work" will be equipped with a large table, mobile writing desk, adjustable... View	Products
10/29/1929	“Black Tuesday” Stock Market Crash The Wall Street stock market crashes, leading the world into the Great Depression. View
1932	“Century of Progress” Desk The "Century of Progress" desk is designed for the 1933 World's Fair in Chicago. It introduces the island base. View	Products
04/22/1947	“Honeymoon in New York” Shuts Down the Chair Plant The Chair Plant (Plant #4) shuts down for 30 minutes to listen to newlyweds Jim and Rose Sarnicola on the “Honeymoon in New York” radio program. Jim is a welder in the Chair Plant and the couple won... View	Company
1988	$1 Million Gifted to GR Public Museum Steelase completes our year-long 75th anniversary by donating $1 million to the Grand Rapids Public Museum. The museum used this money toward their "Furniture City" exhibit that stayed in place for nearly... View	Communities
02/18/2016	10 Years on Fortune’s Most Admired Fortune has recognized Steelcase Inc. (NYSE:SCS) as one of its 2016 “World’s Most Admired Companies” in the Home Equipment and Furnishings industry sector. Steelcase, the global leader in its industry,... View	Company
1958	1300 Line Desks Introduced Steelcase introduces the 1300 Line of contemporary desks, credenzas, and cabinets. The 1300 Line is the first desk to offer either a stainless steel binding on the top edge or a Textolite self-edged top.... View	Products
1960	2200 Line Desks Introduced The 2200 Line is the industry’s first furniture with flush drawer pulls, tambour-door cabinets, and letter-/ legal-size modular cabinets with guaranteed drawer alignment. It is the only flush-type design... View	Products
1950	25 Year Club Organized The “25 Year Club” is organized in 1950 and 56 employees join, three of whom were hired in 1912, the year we were founded. This year, nearly one out of every 12 employees becomes a member. View	Company
06/19/1974	430 Chair Introduced The Series 430 office chair, called "The chair that loves people," is introduced at NeoCon. It sets a new standard in office seating design through the use of comfort contouring, driven by the increasing... View	Products
1983	44th Street Corporate Headquarters Opens Steelcase's new Corporate Headquarters opens in Grand Rapids and is lauded as "a textbook example of how to organize human resources in the optimum work environment." Located at 901 44th Street SE, the... View	Company
1962	50th Anniversary Celebration As Steelcase celebrates our 50th anniversary (pictured), we are expanding across North America with a new facility in La Mirada, California and an expansion to the plant in Don Mills, Ontario, Canada. View	Company
03/14/1912 - 01/15/1914	A.W. Hompe Elected President Two days prior to the official founding of the Metal Office Furniture Co., Alexander W. Hompe, president of The Macey Co., is elected president and chairman of the board. He resigns in 1914, handing... View	Leadership
1930	Acquisition of Doehler Metal Furniture Company Metal Office Furniture Co. acquires Doehler Metal Furniture Co. This acquisition enables us to remain solvent during the Depression by manufacturing metal household and hospital furniture (our first foray... View	Company
06/1978	Acquisition of Vecta® The Steelcase Grand Prairie, Texas, plant opens when we acquired Vecta Contract Inc. (Vecta®), a manufacturer of architectural furnishings (e.g. lobbies, lounges, conference rooms for universities,... View	Company
07/1961	Acrylic Paints Introduced Steelcase begins to use acrylic paints on products, a first within the industry. A water-based paint, acrylic is more environmentally friendly than the oil-based paints previously used on our lines. View	Sustainability
1925	Architect-Designed Office Space Dealer, E. A. Holscher hires an architect to produce more efficient layout at Missouri-Pacific Railroad offices, which reduces space utilized by 25 percent, and other orders follow. View	Industry
08/28/2004	Athens, AL Plant Celebrates 25 Years Our Athens, AL plant celebrates 25 years of manufacturing with an open house, plant tours and a Steelcase show truck. The Athens plant started out manufacturing systems furniture panels and storage products. ... View	Company
09/11/2001	Attwood Assists After Terrorist Attacks Attwood Corp., a Steelcase subsidiary, completes a rush order of a thousand plastic components for use in ventilator kits used by rescue workers in New York City. Employees at Attwood work through the... View	Communities
1964	Attwood Corp. Acquired Steelcase acquires Attwood Corp., a source of quality plating and plastic extrusions for our products. David D. Hunting, Jr., formerly treasurer of Steelcase, is appointed president. View	Company
1999	Awarded for Waste Reduction Our plant in Tustin, California (pictured) is recognized by the Waste Reduction Awards Program (WRAP), an annual program sponsored by the California Integrated Waste Management Board. The Tustin facility's... View	Sustainability
1977	Begin Testing Speech Privacy The Acoustics Lab opens in Grand Rapids – making Steelcase the first to test speech privacy in simulated open office conditions. View	Industry
circa 1980	Beginning of the Information Age The 1980's mark the end of the Industrial Age and the beginning of the Information Age, a shift with major implications for office furniture makers. View
1914	Bent Steel and Resistance Welding Demonstrated A demonstration of the combination of bending steel at a right angle and resistance welding in both the Victor wastebasket and a series of file cabinets. The combination enables file cabinet drawers to... View	Products
2002	BlueSpace Developed Steelcase partners with IBM to create BlueSpace, a "smart office" that combines advanced technology, architecture, and furniture. It was designed as a "prototype of the future." View	Products
10/03/1966	Broadsides Lateral Files Introduced The 860 Series Broadsides Lateral Files are introduced. This is an industry first, beating out a competitor who claims to have been the first with lateral files in 1967. Soon Broadsides will be incorporated... View	Products
06/2015	Brody WorkLounge Launches Our research reveals that one of the things people need most is choice and control – over where and how they work, but also over the type and level of stimuli around them. Brody is a part of our solution... View	Products
2001	Cachet® Chair Introduced The Cachet® chair, designed by Peter Jon Pearce, is introduced. It is an ergonomical, stackable chair designed for healthcare and research applications where comfort and cleanability are key; Cachet is... View	Products
1989	CDC Opens: Context® Furniture Installed The Steelcase Corporate Development Center, a pyramid-shaped facility for research and development, opens. This building was designed to increase collaboration and includes Steelcase's new curvilinear... View	Company
1913	Clestra Hauserman Founded Clestra Hauserman is founded by E. F. Hauserman in Cleveland, OH. This company is credited with creating the industry's first moveable partitions. Later, in the 1970s, Strafor Facom purchases Clestra Hauserman.... View	Industry
05/2008	Coalesse Formed Responding to blurring distinctions between office and home as places for work, Steelcase launches Coalesse, a new premium brand that provides products for work/life settings. It’s a... View	Company
2009	Collaboration Solutions Introduced Steelcase launches a set of collaborative solutions including: c:scape®, media:scape® (pictured), i2i®, and cobi®. These products are designed to help people connect more easily with each other and... View	Products
01/2012	Collaboration Tools for Active Learning Environments Introduced At the Consumers Electronic Show held in Las Vegas, Steelcase introduced media:scape mini and media:scape mobile as a way to adapt to the changing learning environment. After years of research, it has... View	Products
circa 1920	Commonwealth Top Customer Metal Office Furniture Co.’s largest customer is the Commonwealth Edison Company of Chicago, which is the first large firm to standardize on our steel desk. Better known today as ComEd, Commonwealth... View	Company
1953	Community Chest Record Set All previous Metal Office Furniture Co. records were smashed when 87% of all employees donated to this year's Community Chest campaign, meeting 100%-plus of the goal. The Community Chest name may have... View	Communities
2011	Community Support Since 1912 we've made community support initiatives around the world an integral part of our operations. Steelcase is dedicated to using our resources to provide for communities and projects in line with... View	Communities
12/01/1954	Company Name Change: Steelcase Inc. The Company name officially becomes Steelcase Inc., differentiating it from competitors who use variations of “metal office furniture” in their names. This change allows us to capitalize on our successful... View	Company
03/28/2005	Consolidation Announced As part of Steelcase's goal to build a lean, more flexible industrial system, we announce plans to consolidate West Michigan manufacturing operations on the Kentwood Complex and move toward the sale of... View	Company
1989	Context® Introduced Context, a free-standing furniture system, is introduced. Context components allow a few modular pieces to be combined to yield a great variety of workstations and islands. Our promotional video launch... View	Products
1952	Convertibles Introduced Metal Office Furniture Co. introduces Convertibles. These products provide users with more storage space, wider knee-space and greater stability for electric typewriters and calculating machines, while... View	Products
2007	Cradle to Cradle Product Certifications Awarded Pathways® Privacy Wall is the first ever certified movable wall system to receive Cradle to Cradle product certification. The Montage® freestanding system, Siento® and Move™ seating, 100 and 500 Series... View	Sustainability
1996	Criterion® is the Best Selling Chair The Criterion® chair, designed to meet customer health, safety and comfort needs, becomes our best-selling chair. View	Products
09/13/1961	Datacase Introduced At the 50-Year Anniversary Dealer Meeting, “Accent on Excellence,” a complete line of Datacase data processing auxiliaries is announced. This line is designed to accommodate the requirements of customers'... View	Products
1922	Dealer Network Launched Metal Office Furniture Co. is one of the first companies known to build an official dealer organization. Our first dealer is in St. Louis, Missouri. By 1968 we will have nearly 900 dealers in all 50 states... View	Industry
1948	Dealer Office Planning Assistance Pioneered Hunting-Roberts Co., the California distributor of Steelcase furniture, pioneers office planning, establishing a new area of dealer assistance that is soon followed by the entire industry. View	Industry
06/1972	Designs in Wood Introduced With the purchase of Hardwood Designs in California and plans to build a wood furniture plant in North Carolina, Steelcase prepares to introduce Designs in Wood. View	Company
1961	DesignTex® Founded DesignTex® is founded by Harry Paley and Ralph Saltzman in New York City. In 1988, Steelcase will acquire the Company to offer a wider selection of upholstery materials. View	Industry
2000	DesignTex® Technology Wins Awards DesignTex®, a Steelcase Design Partnership® company, wins awards for Climatex Lifecycle “environmentally intelligent” fabrics, including one for best example of sustainable design in product design... View	Sustainability
1924	Desk Strength and Durability The 621 desk is designed to be fireproof and because of our manufacturing process, is able to support up to 6,000 pounds. Steel furniture is gaining acceptance, and this is Metal Office Furniture Co.’s... View	Products