York Travel And Control Centre

As part of the renovation of the former British Rail West Offices to create new headquarters for City of York Council, Thinking Space provided control room furniture for both the new CCTV control room and Traffic Management Suite.

The West Offices building, which started life in 1841 as York’s original railway station is a grade 2 listed building and one of York’s most important heritage sites.  The £32 million project to transform the station to new headquarters and a customer centre for City of York Council, involved both new build and renovation.  The result is an impressive site with innovative design and open plan accommodation for staff.  It demonstrates how historic buildings can be transformed and rejuvenated to form functional space.

With the client requiring extra capacity in their new control rooms to cope with increased responsibilities and workloads, Thinking Space was tasked with creating consoles which maximised workspace, providing an efficient working environment.  The client also had new technologies to accommodate within the furniture, and as all furniture is bespoke, Thinking Space was able to meet the client’s requirements effectively. Using their newly launched Core Assembly System for the furniture construction, Thinking Space was able to provide the client with more choice of console shapes as well as creating greater stability.  The new improved aluminium build system, developed in house by Thinking Space and replacing the previous TS aluminium build system, also provides the benefits of easier furniture installation.  Due to a simpler connector design and larger screws, installation times are reduced, ensuring that tight timescales can be met.  The Core Assembly System also benefits from creating furniture which is modern with clean lines, further enhancing the feeling of space. The client’s colour scheme in the new control rooms consists of a mix of grey and white finishes.  Thinking Space was able to match the colour scheme with the furniture worktops and cladding panels, the new aluminium profiles of the Core Assembly System complimenting the look. With Thinking Space being the UK distributor of Novus MoreSpace desk accessories, an extensive selection of monitor mounts, both desk mounted and free standing, were provided, creating multiple screen positions for operators. Several Evolution Media Walls custom designed and installed by Thinking Space now accommodate larger flat screens at optimum viewing positions for operators, ensuring that the City of York is safe and travel in and around the city is managed effectively.

A key design requirement for both refurbished rooms was to provide better use of space. Both required two position consoles with plenty of workspace for desktop control equipment. Each console was to be positioned in front of an Evolution Media Wall, provided by Thinking Space. Large flat screen monitors would be used to manage CCTV images from across all 320 acres of campus. Three 50” screens were accommodated on the media wall in the main control room, with three desktop monitors mounted per operator using the Moni-Trak perfect positioning rail and Novus ergonomic monitor mounts. With the Sainsbury Centre, the challenge was to provide a console which was ergonomic yet fitting within the confines of a smaller space. PC bays and under desk storage were omitted to allow the console to abut the wall. A media wall with five screen configuration was provided. One large monitor takes up centre stage, with four smaller monitors surrounding it. Thinking Space revisited the university in November 2018 to see how both the control rooms had turned out, and could see for themselves the impact the modern environments have had on staff working there. Sales Specialist Neil Walker explained “I have worked with University security staff for many years up and down the country, and always look forward to being able to help the education sector by improving their working environments. Keeping staff and students safe on campus and in the towns where the universities are based is so important. We provide solutions for maximum comfort and wellbeing of staff in 24/7 working environments. Having staff that are comfortable, focused and motivated when working longer hours as they monitor day to night footage can only be positive for the safety of all”.