[Sam Cat]

I agree that the best way to go for a dividing wall is for the bottom half to be either just a plain wall or storage, you choose, and the top half be safety glass. That way, the kids working on Lego and Vex can look at the shop and watch you guys work from the safety of a separate room. Curtains would definitely be a useful item for testing autonomous modes. Another suggestion would be to make sure that you have floor space designated for a scale somewhere near your work tables. You'll need to weigh the robot and its various components many times while you're working on it, and believe me from experience that you don't want to have to walk far to get to your scale. Just make sure it's in an out-of-the-way corner so no one trips on it.

Also, if you could post preliminary designs when they're available and pics of the lab-in-progress, I'm sure we'd all love to see it.