Serpentine trading desks at Connecticut School of Business

Kevin Chivers, Business Development Manager, Steelcase Australia advised that their low-profile access floor. is not currently offered in Australia (they will bring it in if someone orders enough). Kevin pointed out where it is used in universities in the USA. One interesting example is the Financial Accelerator at the University of Connecticut School of Business. This is a simulated financial trading floor, complete with trading desks for budding traders and a big electronic screen showing the market. The desks have the serpentine design I had envisaged using for a flexible learning center.

The desks have a zig zag wall separating the two rows of traders. Each desk has three screens, two phone handsets and a digital phone. For a general purpose learning center, the wall, handsets and all but one screen would be omitted.

The room was built in 2004. If built today, it is likely that just one larger screen and one handset per desk would be needed. The digital phone functions and split screens could be done in software.

It appears that the trading room was the only part of the fit-out using the serpentine desks. There appear to be other training rooms with rows of conventional straight benches and standard computers.