When it comes to getting clients exaaaaaactly what they need, specialty manufacturers are great. Everyone loves an expert, and it was the great Socrates that said, “Each individual can only do one thing well. He can’t do lots of things. If he tries, he will be jack of all trades, and master of none.” So we’ve sourced things like partitions, marker boards, acoustic panels, and custom surfaces and features from small, specialty manufacturers for years. It’s been successful, but we can’t deny it’s been a lot of work.
We are delighted to announce that designers now have a one-stop resource for just such items at burkeMICHAEL+: We’ve just become the region’s exclusive 3FORM dealer partner. If you know, you know, and if you don’t know, you will soon.
3FORM is an industry leader in manufacturing sleek glass markerboards and high-performance acoustics, to beautifully translucent partitions. LightArt is their studio dedicated to one-of a kind light fixtures and sculptural installations. Where once designers would spend hours sourcing from three to five manufacturers, 3FORM’s broad offerings of specialized products are filling a much-needed niche. But that’s not even the best part.
3FORM is an early industry leader in scaling bespoke and handmade goods for commercial interiors. But they are also nearly two decades ahead of everyone else on sustainability practices, including micro-saving programs. The Full Circle Foundation is their global initiative to pursue world-wide social, environmental and economic programs. They were among the first to launch products containing recalled content, and to publicly state a goal of creating net-positive products.
This was no bandwagon hop-on; this ethos has driven 3FORM for twenty years, and was one of the first in a tidal industry shift. Architecture and design had to be the catalyst of sustainable practices. They moved forward in recognizing the “power and responsibility of the architecture and design industry to embrace appropriate and urgent solutions for a stable climate, a healthy built environment, and a robust circular economy.”
In other words, if no one was creating products that met any kind of impact standard, how exactly would the built environment ever move forward into restoring the planet and bettering lives? Someone had to go first, and 3FORM blazed the trail, with myriad products and initiatives. Socrates would be shocked.
Watch this space for more information about how burkeMICHAEL+ is celebrating this partnership, and integrating 3FORM into Pittsburgh projects. And if you want a whisper-quiet workspace with flexible partitions, movable marker boards and custom ceiling fixtures from one sustainable source? We think you know who we’ll choose.
Mary Frances Hogan President + Ringmaster burkeMICHAEL+