FUNCTION VS. DESIGN Hervey Brown was getting frustrated. For more than two hours. he had been retereeing between John. his designer. and 5am. his manager. He barely had been able to get a word in edgewise most of the time. "Okay." said Harvey. "enough about the mg. Let's move on to the tables and chats for the dining room." Flipping through the furnishing spec book. John sought the right page. \"Here they are. kay now. they've already been decided on. The white wrought-iron chairs to match up with the ice cream parlor tables. with round 28\" glass tops. Now let's move on." "Just a minute." Sam said. "Wrought-iron chairs are heavy. aren't they?\" About 35 pounds or so. Why?" John inquired. \"Because they may just be too heavy for the kids to move around at that weight.\" Sam reped. \"Never mind that." said John. "Their parents always move them around 33% anyway." \"Okay." Sam agreed. \"But how high are they?\" \"The standard l8" seat height. Why?" asked John. "And lsuppose they have round. padded seats. with arms." asked Sam. \"They're not supposed to have arms.\" John said. "The look we want is an old-time. ice cream parlor look. and that means no arms. \"Just why are arms important?\" Harvey asked. happy to nally be able to contribute a question. \"Well.\" Sam said. \"the kids will need a booster cha'r because those seats are too low for the'r normal dining height. And boosters will slide or fall off a chair without an'ns. It's just not . . . ." \"Hold it." John interrupted. We have to keep the look if the look of the whole concept is going to succeed. Trust me. I've seen changes that destroyed . . . " \"Wait a minute. John. that's crazy. Are we going to give up function for design? And make the kids unsteady on their chairs and their mothers worried all throughout their meal?" Harvey held up his hand and waited till they stopped arguing. "John." he said. \"does the manufacturer make the same chair with arms?\" \"Yes. But it's not within the concept. you know." \"But in ne with function." Sam said. \"Dkay. okay.\" Harvey said. \"how much extra will it cost for cha'rs with arms?\" \"It I can still get them on deadline. add about 20% to the cost of each chair. It. mind you!" John said. "Okay, start checking on it, please John. Are the tables okay though?" asked Harvey. "Let me interrupt here," Sam said. "A round 28" top doesn't give us enough room to set the table properly, and still leave enough room for the breadbasket, or wine glasses, or even side plates." John snorted his reply. "There is more than enough room for that stuff. Besides, your servers are supposed to take that stuff away, so as not to clutter up the table, right?" "Only after it's been on the table first. The size and material just aren't right, Harvey." "Oh, come on Sam, everyone used to use glass for table tops," Harvey said. "Even I know that!" "Used to use it, right? But not now. We're expecting a high volume restaurant, and you know how dirty a glass table-top will be after a group of kids get finished with it. What are we supposed to do? Bring out the Windex and a no-lint cloth every time? It's just too much work and won't be done properly. We'll be seating guests at dirty tables." "And if you designers did a better job of designing functional operations, we'd have an easier time running them." Harvey interrupted again. "Seems to me we'd better rethink both the table and chairs." "Oh great," John said, "I thought these things were firmed up a month ago. Trying to change things now, if possible, might put the opening back a while." "But if it's not right, then we'll be saddled with the mistake forever. It must be right. Can you check on things, John?" Harvey said. "I suppose we could hurry the manufacturer by paying a premium price for a rush order. It would be expensive. There's 270 chairs and 47 tables . . . but we'd make the opening." "Expensive?" Harvey said. "Wait a minute here. What kind of a mess might have I got myself into?&quot