Some assembly required: Crews work fast to furnish USC Village

With more than 80 residential education lounges to furnish, assembly and setup is moving fast at USC Village.

More than 2,500 students will move into the development’s 660 residential units in August, and they’ll have plenty of space to study and collaborate.

“There are two types of residential education lounges in the USC Village,” said Emily Sandoval, director for Residential Education at USC. “Some are designed to promote space conducive to individual and group studying and others are designed for community building complete with a television and comfortable seating. Every lounge has modern furniture and bright lighting to help create an engaging atmosphere where students can study or connect with their friends.”

While the work of transporting, unloading, assembling and placing furniture is moving quickly, design and planning took years. Interior designer Jan Edson worked with USC residential education and architects to choose color schemes, furniture styles and layouts for shared spaces.

“We tried to pick out flexible, modern furniture that incorporated colors from the building into each lounge,” Edson said. “The color scheme for each building is based on landscapes, and you’ll see that echoed as you walk through the residential life lounges.”

Larry Wiekel of Tangram Interiors has worked in commercial furnishings all his life, but he’s rarely seen a project involving the scale and specialization of USC Village.

The scope of the work is the biggest I’ve done.

Larry Weikel

“The scope of the work is the biggest I’ve done,” Weikel said. “A trailer is offloaded every two days. I’m talking about 18 wheelers with trailers 53 feet long. I monitor and measure every single item and make sure it’s in the right place.”

Some assembly is required for the couches, lounge seating, desks, chairs, tables and stools now filling up the USC development. No two lounges or lobbies are the same.

Dan Moran of USC Housing, who spent two years getting ready for this critical and complex stage of the project’s completion, likes seeing it all come together.

“We researched and planned the look, feel and design of these furnishings, and we couldn’t be more pleased with the result,” Moran said. “The first word out of everyone’s mouths when they tour the completed sections is always ‘Wow!’”