A variety of new and recycled slate was recently incorporated into the design of a 3,860-square-foot private residence in Central Vermont, providing the home with long-lasting, functional qualities, while still being aesthetically pleasing to the eye. And Slate Affair Inc. of Enosburg Falls, VT, not only supplied the material for the project, but the company also established the design and installed the material as well.
The new San José Public Library - Pearl Avenue Branch in San José, CA, includes the use of local slate from Echeguren Slate, Inc. of San Francisco, CA, and the material played an integral role in the design of the facility. One main project goal was to double the size of the original library - which was built in 1971 - bringing it from 7,116 square feet to 14,000 square feet of space. Another objective was to give the space the feel of an attractive bookstore, and Krista Nelson, AIA, and Pamela Anderson- Brulé, AIA, of Anderson Brulé Architects of San José, CA, was responsible for the design.
Fairly new to the stone industry, Stephen Bowker, owner of Bowstone of Ball Ground, GA, has quickly learned what it takes to rise to the top, and he attributes much of the company’s success to the assistance of a waterjet machine from WARDJet, Inc. of Tallmadge, OH.
RocHenge of Denver, CO, operates out of a 30,000-square-foot facility that is equipped with a variety of high-end machinery, including a RoboCut saw/waterjet from U.S. Granite Robotics of Barrington, IL, which assists the company in producing an average of 40 kitchens a week.
FloForm Countertops, which has been handling business in Western Canada since the early 1960s, began as a laminate countertop and solid surface operation, and has since moved into natural stone fabrication. With branches in Edmonton, Calgary, Regina, Saskatoon and Winnipeg, the stone division of the company produces an average of 12 kitchens a day with the help from a variety of state-of-the-art equipment from Park Industries of St. Cloud, MN, including a Park Fusion™ 6000 CNC saw/waterjet.
In addition to serving as a commercial, industrial and institutional contractor, the David Allen Company also maintains a state-of-the-art fabrication facility at its corporate headquarters in Raleigh, NC. Among the stoneworking machinery in place, the 4,300-square-foot shop relies on waterjet technology from Jet Edge, Inc. of St. Michael, MN, for intricate work.
For Russ Owens and Jeff Hanning, current owners of Paragon Granite in Fresno, CA, a mid-life career change meant making the leap into stone fabrication. And while the market has slowed quite substantially since the company first began in 2001, the company has developed creative programs to increase market share and continue to grow the success of their business, which now produces an average of 10 to 12 kitchen a week.
What began as a glass company in 1955 has since evolved into a stone fabrication business now in its fourth generation of family employees. Bailes Granite of Charleston, WV, currently owned and operated by Sue and John Carper, switched from the glass industry to stone production in 2001, when the company was averaging just one kitchen a week. Today, the company puts out about 15 to 20 kitchens a week, and it is looking to expand its business territory to include all areas of West Virginia within the next few years.
The three-story, 132,000-square-foot Virginia Bioinformatics Institute at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA, was designed in two phases to support research in biotechnology, bioinformatics, environmental science, health technologies and functional genomics. Programming, planning, design and construction administration for both phases of the project were implemented by Calloway Johnson Moore & West P.A. of Winston-Salem, NC, and the facility is expected to serve as an integral component to the long-term growth of the University’s campus.
In order to consolidate Sprint’s operations, which were situated in more than 60 separate locations across Kansas City, into one central facility, the Sprint World Headquarters campus was designed in Overland Park, KS. And of the 18 new facilities, the Headquarters Building features more than 10,000 pieces of limestone and marble for flooring and columns.