| Georgetown in
Washington, DC is an area famous for its university as well its
historic atmosphere. Nestled against the Potomac River, it
still has cobblestone streets & buildings well over a
century old. Just one block off the river is M Street,
noted for its high-end shops---among them, this year's Wood
Floor of the Year winner in the factory-finished category.
A building from the 1820s is the
setting for this Levi's store & its winning floor. The
design of the new store plays off the setting's historic
atmosphere & the company's rustic heritage. The
acrylic-impregnated flooring is a 3/8-inch-thick engineered oak
in an ebonized color. In keeping with the company's green
directive, it is also FSC-certified.
Universal Floors was called in to
install the flooring. While the company may be better
known for its work on high-profile government
buildings---including a 2005 Wood Floor of the Year Award for a
restoration in the building that houses the US Department of
State, as well as work on the White House & the Naval
Observatory---its expertise really spans anything found in the
immediate DC area, explains company President Sprigg Lynn.
"We've done nearly every retail store down there on M
Street, " he says, noting that the job was only about four
miles from the Universal office. "We stay within 10
miles of our shop. People don't like to work in DC, but
we've got it down to a science."
Most of this particular DC job
was straightforward. There was about 1,400 square feet of
the floor laid over a concrete slab. To fit the rustic
atmosphere, the designers did not want the subfloor as flat as
would normally be called for, Lynn says. Once the floor
was in, the designers had the afterthought to add the inlay
"Original since 1873"---a reference to the year of the
company's first blue jean patent---and worked with Winneconne,
Wis.-based Oshkosh Designs to create it. The inlay's text
is in copper, like the rivets on the famous Levi's jeans, and
the heavy metal letters arrived in pieces, just like a puzzle,
Lynn says.
Since the store was a prototype
for the new Levi's store concept, the Levi Strauss & Co. CEO
was flying in to see the store. Lynn & Universal's Guy
Hunter managed to drop in the inlay & epoxy down the letters
just as the CEO arrived. "He walked in literally as
we were wiping the floor," Lynn says. The floor &
its inlay found favor with the CEO. "He liked it so
much that all their installations are going to have some version
of this, so you'll start seeing it in the new stores," Lynn
says.
As for Universal Floors, the
company's energy is now turning to the type of project it's
known for---resanding & finishing 17,000 square feet in the
Supreme Court.---K.M.W. |
