Restoration rubber tile in square (above) and hexagonal (below) shapes. A selection of handcrafted hardwood options (bottom).

Crafty options in rubber tile and
custom hardwood flooring
New York City–based Architectural Systems offers a range of wood-panel, decorative-surface, display, speciality, and flooring product lines. The ASI Flooring Group comprises natural or engineered stone, resilient, and hardwood-flooring products. The Group’s latest introduction includes Restoration Rubber Tile, a collection of square, rectangular, and hexagonal shapes in vintage hues. A breakthrough technology emulates the look of antique stones with rich, natural color variation, and the tactile rubber surface offers maximum nonslip protection and durability in demanding commercial environments.

Also new from Architectural Systems is Handcrafted Hardwood Flooring, a flooring collection that is custom milled, stained, and hand-distressed, one board at a time.

The rustication process accentuates the character of the natural wood product. Choice woods are used to ensure that the flooring performs in all types of environments.

Stock samples are available from Architectural Systems at no charge. In addition to its product lines, the company now offers custom architectural millwork and installation, fabrication, and design development services for store fixturing. Architectural Systems, New York City. www.archsystems.com   [ Reader Service # 210 ]

Sustainably harvested exotic wood additions
Mirage’s prefinished hardwood flooring line includes a range of species, stains, and widths. This year, standard species such as red oak, maple, beech, and American walnut have been joined by two new exotic hardwood species, merbau and sapele.

From the forests of Indonesia, merbau is characterized by its distinctly contrasting grain and color, which ranges from yellow ochre to dark reddish brown. Merbau is known for a marked change in color as the wood matures and offers greater dimensional stability than many North American species. With its softer grain and reddish-brown hue, sapele, the African species, offers similar stability.

Mirage is a product of the Canadian company Boa-Franc, a firm dedicated to sustainable development through selecting materials only from responsible suppliers, financially supporting reforestation, maintaining a wood-recycling program, and using only nontoxic manufacturing products. Boa-Franc, Saint-Georges, Canada. www.miragefloors.com [ Reader Service # 211 ]

Top-scoring classroom flooring designs
Ecosurfaces was part of the winning team awarded the grand prize in the annual StarNet Design Awards Contest, a competition that recognizes creativity in commercial interior design through the innovative use of floor covering. The project, the City Hall Academy at the Tweed Courthouse in New York City, was designed by the New York firm of Loffredo Brooks Architects and features a variety of Ecosurfaces’ recycled rubber flooring colors and waterjet-cut designs. The winning design ranges from brightly colored and intricately cut floor maps for grade school classrooms to more sophisticated tonal color combinations in which the rubber floor resembles wood or cork.

Ecosurfaces is made from high-quality, 100 percent recycled tire rubber and colorful EPDM flecks. Ecosurfaces Commercial Flooring, Lancaster, Pa. www.regupol.com [ Reader Service # 212a ]