The Way Forward

Karen D. Singh -- Interior Design, 11/1/2006 12:00:00 AM

Needing a floor covering to tie together a truly enormous project, the 2.5 million-square-foot U.S. Census Bureau in Suitland, Maryland—and that's just phase one—interiors partner Stephen Apking teamed up with manufacturer Milliken & Company to produce the Way collection. Drawing inspiration from architectural and natural sources such as cityscapes, airports, bridges, and glaciers, the carpet tile integrated the Census Bureau's floor plane into the overall architecture of the space.

Apking employed the manufacturer's cutting-edge high-resolution ink-jet printing, which provides a range of color values and allows for designs to be dyed onto the surface of the tile, not woven in. For Way, that resulted in three visually dimensional patterns: horizontally spotted Urbanscape, abstract square Riverbed, and striped Forcefield. Each of the three coordinating patterns comes in a variety of scales and six colorways. Asphalt is shown here; there's also Lake, Meadow, Lava, Glacier, and Bedrock. The 36-inch-square tile can be installed in monolithic, ashlar, and quarter-turned styles. Best of all, the product earns the maximum LEED credit for carpet, thanks to a composition of at least 80 percent postconsumer recycled material, an integrated backing that adheres without glue, and the potential for reuse.

Way has already made its way into several of the firm's projects, including the Greenwich Academy upper school in Connecticut. 201 Lukken Industrial Drive, LaGrange, GA 30240; 800-241-4826; millikencarpet.com. circle 325