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30 | DECEMBER 2019 Architectural Woodwork Morinwood created a linear ceil- ing made of white laminate slats for the $19.4-million Victoria International Airport expansion, and it is just start- ing work on the $55-million Nanaimo Airport Terminal expansion. "If that's not enough, on the horizon are a ton of hospital and institutional proj- ect that many companies – including ours – have our eyes on, including Royal Columbian Hospital, Royal Inland Hospital, and the new St. Paul's Hospital," says Morin. "The amount of potential opportunities in this sector is staggering." Companies such as Top 40 Woodworks Ltd. have positioned themselves well to take advantage of the boom in 2019 and beyond. Top 40 recently redesigned its entire plant layout to improve flow and installed $2-million worth of new equipment, including a new automated material handling system with an overhead crane to feed a CNC router. When ordered, the crane moves into a storage system where material has been laid out and picks out sheets with a suction device. The sheets are then cut to spec- ifications, dropped onto an assembly belt, labelled, and inspected. The crane also transports incoming new mate- rial from delivery trucks to the storage cage, where it is codified via software. Located in Revelstoke, Lortap Architectural Millwork manufactures custom millwork, solid wood slab work, linear ceilings, custom wall panelling, custom moldings, trims, any kind of solid surface countertops for hospi- tals, schools, banks, corporate offices, casinos, universities, ski resorts, and high-end residential homes. Lortap strives to be Canada's pre- mier provider of high-quality wood products and custom manufacturing services that exceed customer expecta- tions. It is Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) compliant and uses environmen- tally responsible products and building materials whenever possible. Lortap continually invests in updat- ing its manufacturing equipment, engineering software and person- nel training: for example, in 2017 the millwork shop expanded from 19,000 to 30,000 square feet, allow- ing Lortap to continue to create and provide quality products to customers such as Canyon Falls Middle School in Kelowna and the Sensisyusten House of Learning in West Kelowna, as well as Columbia Park Elementary School in Revelstoke and Minnekhada Middle School in Vancouver. "Most of our work is millwork, cabinets, case work, and reception desks," says Kathryn Parr, Lortap's marketing manager, adding that in the hospital realm her com- pany also won bids for the Arrow Lakes Hospital renovation and the Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital in Trail, among others. As architectural woodworkers ben- efit from the uptick in market activity, so too do companies that supply the components – cabinetry hardware and other products – that facilitate function and enhance the beauty of any project. Grass Canada Inc. is a member of the international Grass Group with a 20 year history in the Canadian market. The Grass brand stands for visionary development, top quality, technical pre- cision, and progressive design, and the Group has ranked among the world's leading developers and manufactur- ers of movement systems for over 70 years (its slide and drawer systems, as well as flap and hinge systems, are dis- tinct products renowned for bringing kitchen and cabinet designs to life). Toronto-based George Pavlov, national architectural and design spec- ification manager for Grass Canada, notes that "2019 was an odd year in that there was a noticeable increase in com- mercial and condo work, but the single family dwelling sector was stagnant, as was the home renovation market, with seemingly only high-end homeowners willing to invest in upgrades." Still, Pavlov says a huge influx of Grass products are being specified in projects, "partly because of our mar- keting and lunch-and-learn initiatives, but also because of our company phi- losophy. We're a big believer in honest disclosure with regards to what our products can and cannot do. We share our testing data with clients, and we show them how our products can be integrated with different materials." One way Pavlov demonstrates the superiority of Grass products is to showcase a particular item at trade shows. "It's a hinged aluminum door that is only six-millimetres thick," he says. "This kind of display really inspires designers." Also inspiring is the fact that Grass spearheaded the trend toward damping systems for drawers and doors and more recently introduced (in Cologne, Germany) the first integrated super slim lifter sys- tem that is machined and concealed into the cabinet itself to maximize inte- rior space and make it hidden, slim, and almost invisible. Finally, other component provid- ers with international roots have been busy introducing new products to the marketplace in 2019. Blum Canada is one example, and it benefits from being an arm of Blum, the Austrian manufac- turer of fittings, which recently won the German Design Award 2019 for Expando T, its innovative fixing mech- anism for thin fronts made of unusual materials, and the Aventos HK top stay lift, which is linear in design and small in size. A millikenfloors.com Featured: Low Country Collection Untitled-7 1 11/15/19 11:00 AM

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