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It’s that time of year again, when we at Surface Fabrication magazine gather up a handful of the creative designs we’ve come across in the past year and highlight those projects for you right here. The past year was especially difficult for the industry to navigate as the country fell into a recession, forcing fabricators to get creative and find new means of doing business. We hope you can find some inspiration in the next pages to help get your creative juices flowing and give you an edge in weathering the storm ahead.

STEP BY STEP

Solid Surface

This Corian solid surface staircase was fabricated by The Countertop Shop, Beavercreek, Ohio. Despite several resources that advised the shop what it was attempting was not a viable application of the material, Don Meadows proceeded with his own research, design and development. Many baluster designs were built and refined for the project and the last prototype, a 3 ft. section, was set in place for final approval. After that, multiple thermoforming trials began and two processes were used to achieve the needed result, neither of which was “supposed” to have worked. No CNC machines were used for this project, making it genuinely one-of-a-kind.

Natural Stone

Upon entering the lobby of the Dewey Ballantine law offices, located inside the Carroll Square building in the heart of downtown Washington, D.C., guests are exposed to a simply designed lobby with visually-stunning features. In the lobby stands an elliptical staircase fabricated of Corinthian Beige Marble by Rugo Stone LLC, Natural Stone & Mosaic Contractors. What makes this staircase so unique is that each cubic stair tread is individually supported. Due to the design of the geometry, each tread is a separate piece, size and configuration. The landing is also one solid 4-in. thick panel rof marble roughly 8 by 6 ft.

The outer part of the cubic tread is cantilevered beyond the steel support system and is integrated with the baluster system. The railing posts penetrate each stair tread, and the load of weight is shifted to steel brackets located on the underside of each tread. The craftsmanship of the staircase allows for the stairs to look as though they are floating in the air. At the bottom of the elliptical stairs sits a visually stunning raised plinth. This plinth, constructed of Noir St. Laurent, carries the same radius as the elliptical staircase.

Quartz Surfacing

Another curved staircase, this one fabricated in Cambria quartz surfacing, was installed by Heartland Cabinet Supply Inc. of Crystal Lake, Ill., for a model home. The exact same staircase was replicated again for a customer. Owner Gary Reece utilized ETemplate to create and re-create this curved staircase for the second installation. “The stairs were almost like trapezoids — and there were a lot of them,” explained Reece. “It’s a front entry staircase, curved with a beautiful balustrade going up. When the installation day came, we had our stair guy mark where all the balustrades would go and then we had to drill .75-in. holes all the way up the staircase and follow the pattern. It only took about a day, but it was tedious work.”

‘FROM WHERE WE SIT’
In 2008, Formica Corporation revealed the collection, “From Where We Sit,” a limited-edition collection of sculptural furniture which runs a spectrum of scale, design and intent that will tour globally through 2010. Ten world-renowned architects were asked to design an object that people could sit, lie, lean or play upon, designed from Formica brand materials. The pieces are constructed from more than 4,500 sq. ft. of Laminate, ColorCore, ColorThru Compact and Solid Surfacing by Formica. Participating artists include Peter Eisenman, Michael Graves, Zaha Hadid, Thom Mayne, Bill Pedersen, Laurinda Spear, Bernard Tschumi, Jaime Velez, Massimo Vignelli and Buzz Yudell. Pictured here is “Cirrus, 2008” by Zaha Hadid, Zaha Hadid Architects. The project was created from Black Formica laminate in polished finish and stained medium density fiberboard.

MAKING MUSIC

Renaissance Stone LLP, of Wallingford, Conn., collaborated with a cabinet shop to create this unusual and useful island display in the company’s showroom. The entire cabinet is a working island that could be modified (or used as is) from stock items and is configured to look like a baby grand piano. The project’s lead finisher created the keys using Black Absolute granite and Thassos marble. The project even incorporates an overhang for bar stools to pull up along the side of the island. “People usually do a double take when they see it for the first time because it looks so real,” said general manager Patricia Barbuito. “They are tickled by the fact that it is a working island.”

‘FIDELITY, BRAVERY AND INTEGRITY’*

Winsted Technical Interiors (WTI), located in Atlanta, Ga., has been building 100 percent custom command and control consoles for the power generation, military and security markets since 1985 using DuPont Corian for its work surfaces. For the past four years WTI has been designing these work surfaces with CAD software and utilizing a waterjet to incorporate customer’s logos into the design. Current installations include Home Land Security, FBI (*motto above), U.S. Army, Lockheed Martin, NASA, Home Depot, Nike, Verizon, Hilton Hotels, TVA and more than half of the nuclear power plant control rooms in the United States.

GREEN DESIGN

Gene McDonald of Refresh Interiors Inc., Pinellas Park, Fla., is nicknamed “Green” Gene because of his almost 100 percent fabrication of recycled and green products. Of the current materials offered, Avonite’s Recycled Collection makes up about 50 percent of the business, with Paperstone and EnviroGLAS bringing in 20 and 10 percent of the sales respectively. The remaining 20 percent is a combination of the other lines. McDonald likes to mix mediums on projects for a unique look. Pictured here, McDonald inlays coffee beans and bamboo into Paperstone and toys with Enviroglas and Paperstone in this vanity.

“My contracted work for the coming year is going to put Paperstone, EnviroGLAS, Vetrazzo, Plyboo and Avonite Recycled Collection in all equal percentages,” said McDonald. “I look forward to watching the race of which Green material will be the best in this area because to me it’s all Green and it’s all sustainable in my business.”

A NIGHT OUT

Edge Projects Ltd. fabricated a bar and surrounding area for designers Stylematters, in their Oxygen Night Club. Stylematters supply and install custom built furniture and projects for the leisure sector including hotels and restaurants. The material used by Edge Projects for the bar was 9mm LG HI-MACS in Arctic White to create a spectacular and seamless backlit bar surrounding a rich ruby glass center panel supplied by project partners GlassTech with the steelwork supplied by Dawnvale.