History Repeating

As the current global economic crisis forces many of us to scale back and simplify, our art and culture, including architecture and design, will in turn begin to reflect the mood and simplistic nature of the times.  We've seen this happen before. As the country entered the Great Depression in the early 1930s, the decorative opulence of the Art Deco period was replaced with the aerodynamic, simplistic lines of the Streamline Moderne, or simply Streamline, movement.  The clean, linear architecture of the Streamline movement was on full display during Chicago's Century of Progress World's Fair (1933-1934). Also, several projects funded by the U.S. Government's Public Works Administration employed Streamline characteristics including the Minneapolis Armory and the Maritime Museum in San Francisco's Aquatic Park.  The Streamline style was also applied to several everyday consumer items such as automobiles and appliances.

Taking inspiration from this minimalistic design approach, Lamin-Art has introduced three new Streamline designs as part of our recent introduction of 15 new Abstracts prints.  Available in three stylish colors, Mocha, Cocoa, and Gris, this functional motif offers a subtle visual impact that would be suited for any contemporary commercial interior.  See Streamline and the rest of our new Abstracts additions online at www.laminart.com/abstracts.

Economy Slows-Green Grows

Despite the credit crisis and economic slowdown, green building remains the one true bright spot in an otherwise gloomy construction outlook.  McGraw-Hill Construction's Green Outlook 2009, released at last month's Greenbuild International Conference and Expo in Boston, indicates the value of green building construction starts jumped from $10 billion in 2005 to nearly $50 billion in 2008.  And that number could triple in value to nearly $140 billion by 2013.  Growing public awareness, increased government regulation, and rapid recognition and acceptance of the cost benefits of building green are all cited as reasons for this tremendous growth.  Experts believe the emergence of a new green economy could be the engine for recovery by creating new jobs and prompting additional investments.

Lamin-Art supports and encourages a sensible strategy for minimizing our products' and our corporate impact on the environment.  Learn more about our eco-enable project at www.laminart.com/eco-enable.

Lamin-Art Rep Earns LEED AP

Lamin-Art is proud to announce that our Baltimore-Washington D.C. area Architectural Representative, Ashley Kuhn, recently achieved LEED Professional Accreditation.  LEED APs are building professionals who have demonstrated a thorough understanding of green building practices and principles, and are well equipped to successfully manage building projects through the LEED certification process.  More than 43,000 people have earned this credential since the LEED AP program was launched in 2001.  As a LEED AP, Ashley is uniquely qualified to assist specifiers in determining how Lamin-Art high-pressure decorative laminate can contribute to a building project's overall green building strategy.  For more information on Lamin-Art's contributions to LEED projects, download our LEED Requirement Information sheet. 

Enabling Green: Tip #3

Seems only appropriate this holiday season to provide some advice on ways that you can add a little more green to your holiday without having to break out that ugly holiday sweater you received last year, or remove any additional green from your wallet:


Why not recycle holiday gift wrap?  According to Robert Lillenfeld, author of Use Less Stuff: Environmental Solutions for Who We Really Are, if every family reused just 2 feet of holiday ribbon, the 38,000 miles of ribbon saved could tie a bow around the entire planet.

Recycle your fresh tree after the holidays are over.  Instead of taking up space in a landfill, trees can be ground into wood chips and used as mulch in gardens or parks.

New energy-saving LED holiday lights are 90 percent more efficient than traditional Christmas lighting.  According to one U.S Department of Energy study, if everyone replaced conventional holiday lights with LEDs, we'd save 2 billion kilowatt hours of electricity in a month.  That's enough to power 200,000 homes for a year!

All of us at Lamin-Art and our e-newsletter, The Source, would like to thank you for your continued support in 2008.  We wish you and your families a happy, healthy, and safe holiday.