George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum Approachable. Stately. Presidential.

Three of our recent projects took home top honors in the 17^th Annual Starnet Design Awards, one of the flooring industry’s most prestigious competitions to recognize the best and brightest in flooring design. The Starnet awards are the flooring industry’s version of the Academy Awards! This is the second in a series of blogs showcasing these exciting projects.

The George W. Bush Presidential Center, a brick and limestone building on the Southern Methodist University campus in Dallas, is home to the Bush Presidential Library and Museum and the Bush Institute. The 226,000-sq.ft. building complements the historic American Georgian character of the SMU campus. Intertech initially was awarded the flooring contract to install 66,000 square feet of carpet, 10,000 square feet of linoleum, 9,000 lineal feet of rubber wall base and 600 square feet of rubber studio tile in the Center. It subsequently was awarded a separate contract for 16,000 square feet of carpet in the Permanent Exhibit area.

Intertech’s work on the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum was recognized recently with a Silver Award in the national Starnet Design Award Competition. The Starnet Awards are one of the flooring industry’s most prestigious competitions.

The entire complex was built with sustainability in mind, earning it LEED Platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, the highest level of LEED certification possible. It is the first Presidential Library to achieve LEED certification for new construction. Our LEED flooring experience was a great asset in maximizing flooring choices and installation techniques to contribute to LEED points.

“Our strong and proven relationship with general contractor Manhattan Construction was key on this project, but as a project being fully funded by private donations, obviously competitive pricing was also very important,” said Rocky Griffith, Intertech’s project lead.  “Through their longstanding relationship with the architect (Robert A.M.Stern – RAMSA), Bentley Mills was a key part of this project as well.”

A decade ago, Bentley Mills Inc. collaborated with Robert A.M. Stern Architects to create a collection of elegant and durable floor coverings that would set a new trend in the marketplace. The collection encompasses modern, geometric patterns that work well in today’s corporate, institutional and residential interiors, libraries and higher education.

“The Bentley products used in the George W. Bush Library are all patterns developed with the RAMSA team over the last 10 years, and were custom-colored to coordinate with the finishes chosen for each area of the library,” said George R. Maibach, vice president of business development and international sales with Bentley. Using Antron Legacy, Type 6,6 nylon fiber, these products are engineered on 5/64th gauge multi-loop tufting equipment to maintain their like-new appearance with a minimum of maintenance. In addition, they were dyed using Bentley’s state-of-the-art Fleissner, Continuous Dye Range with the Insta Color Dye Application System, capable of dyeing up to 20,000 square yards of carpet in one lot. Other vendors specified for this project included Atlas Carpet Mills, Milliken Commercial and Roppe.