A Treasure Chest of Infinite Possibilities

Wilsonart, headquartered in Temple, Texas is a global manufacturer and distributor of high-pressure laminates and other engineered composite materials used in furniture, office and retail space, countertops, worktops and other applications.

The company opened its new North Americas headquarters in Temple in 2015. Named in honour of company founder Ralph Wilson, Sr the Wilson Center is a LEED Silver building, certified by the US Green Building Council as one of the world’s greenest, most energy-efficient and high performance buildings.

The 31,000ft2 building replaces Wilsonart’s former HQ and consolidates business units that had previously been scattered across multiple sites.

The centre was designed to showcase the potential of Wilsonart products and applications, explains Richard Grant, assistant principal with STG Design, who oversaw the design project.

“The Wilson Center gave us an amazing opportunity to unleash our creativity, while showing the virtually unlimited potential of Wilsonart products in a commercial environment,” said Mr Grant.

Throughout the building, visitors can explore creative applications of the company’s surfacing materials, including High Pressure Laminate (HPL), Thermally- Fused Laminate (TFL), Speciality Laminates, Solid Surface, Quartz, and Compact Laminate.

The applications feature a stunning range of colours, textures and finishes and each room showcases original uses and innovative combinations of the company’s products, technologies and design concepts.

Upon entering the centre, visitors approach the reception desk fabricated from Wilson Solid Surface (Coconut Oil) and Laminate from the Wilson Virtual Design Library (VDL).

The desk features rich, gleaming horizontal solid surface planes juxtaposed with vertical planes in Antique Tobacco Pine Woodgrain Laminate.

Wilsonart’s VDL woodgrain surfacing technique involved scanning genuine native wooden boards and using the scanned images to precisely emulate the actual grain, texture, colouring and shading of the boards.

A coffee table constructed entirely of compact laminate sits in the reception area and features an accent of the Coconut Oil Solid Surfacing used on the reception desk.

The woodgrain laminates chosen for the table – Oiled Chestnut and Florence Walnut – give the table added dimensionality with the light and dark contrast of the two designs. Wilsonart’s Woodgrain Laminates add warmth and a touch of natural elegance to the reception room, while the solid surfaces give it a crisp, contemporary flair.

The gallery hall, a space dedicated to featuring new and noteworthy products on a rotating basis, allows visitors to stop and relax on benches crafted of Montana Walnut Woodgrain Laminate topped with comfortable genuine leather cushions.

Surrounding them, recessed shadow boxes made of Frosty White Laminate display numerous samples and sample applications of Wilsonart products. Inside the recessed niches, interiors of Crystal Steel Decorative Metal gleam.

Wilsonart’s Matte, Polished and Satin Decorative Metals look as though they have been finely honed by expert craftsmen and aged to perfection.

Passing a large training room and an executive conference room, visitors enter the common area of the building, which includes a coffee bar and casual seating area. The coffee bar island juxtaposes a dark Wilsonart Solid Surface (Clouded) on the lower countertop with Old Mill Oak butcher block laminate, finished with a Crescent Edge on the standing-height bar counter.

Because it is seamless and non-porous, Wilsonart’s Solid Surface line is an elegant yet practical solution for this type of application, says the company.

The millwork in the coffee bar features Blue Barn Laminate and Edgebanding, as well as Compact Laminate in White Barn, routed to look like planked wood.

Compact Laminate is an ideal solution for high-impact surfaces such as lockers and cabinets. The rear wall of the coffee bar area also makes use of Wilsonart’s Chalkboard Laminate, a product that offers a durable, versatile and low-maintenance writing surface and a shelf utilising Wilsonart Solicor (Linen), a speciality laminate created with solid colour core that eliminates the brown line characteristic of traditional laminates.

Beneath the Williamsberg Cherry woodgrain decorative laminate beams sits the casual seating area adjacent to the coffee bar area, which is a social hub for employees and visitors to the building. The industrial side tables are adorned in Western Bronze and Landmark Wood laminates.

The airy café features Slate Grey Laminate with the Linearity finish on the millwork lining the wall as well as the island, while the countertops feature the newest addition to Wilsonart’s surfaces portfolio: Wilsonart Quartz (Lorraine). Quartz is engineered to be stain- and scratch-resistant and it is also nonporous and so it never needs to be sealed, making it the perfect choice for this type of application, maintains Wilsonart.

With the soaring glass walls in the café, the tables help to ground the space by utilising a combination of designs. There are monochromatic laminate tables in Rustic Slate with custom bevelled edges and a variety of WXY and VDL Laminate tables, also with decorative edges.

Wilsonart’s Virtual Design Library (VDL) offers an ever-expanding collection of curated, custom laminate designs so that every space can be unique, says the company. From laminate designs that include footballs to folk art and chequerboards to cherry gloves, the digital design library contains something for every style, space and imagination.

Moving from the café to the Wellness Room, cabinets can be seen surfaced and edgebanded in Landmark Wood, countertops fabricated from Maple Harvest Solid Surface and a side table of Windswept Bronze Laminate provides a tranquil environment.

STG Design’s Richard Grant summarises the Wilson Center design experience: “We are very proud of this project and awed by the fact that it will be used and seen by so many of Wilsonart’s domestic and international clients.

“I believe it will open conversations about new technologies and products and inspire new ways of thinking about commercial surroundings, fixtures, furnishings and features in a high functioning working environment.”