My philosophy is for a building to last 50 years and require minimal maintenance. That's my criteria for the building materials, too.

In our newest project, the Primary Care and Diagnostic Center, we were looking for materials that would look good and last a very long time. We wanted to have as high an aesthetic quality as we could, because we wouldn't get a chance to do it again. It's a public facility, and we're not going to be able to change interiors in five years.

The first project we did in CORIAN^® was our information counter. We used CORIAN^® for our emergency / triage desk, too. We obviously could have done it cheaper with other materials, but we wanted something that is durable and will look good forever. We just don't have the budget to replace it.  If we can do it once and do it right, that's better. Labor is very expensive; if you only buy the material once, you're ahead of the game.

George Hernandez
Building Crafts Manager
Univ. of So. Calif. Medical Center
Los Angeles

In terms of versatility, I don't think there's anything in the industry today that matches  CORIAN^®. You can use  CORIAN^® for wall cladding, for cabinets, for dividers, you name it. You have one product that you can warehouse, instead of multiple products, that you can use for everything. And Corian^® is a product that you can reuse. You can use it in one application, pull it off and reuse it again.

CORIAN^® is cost-effective. The most common thing I hear about CORIAN^® is that it's pricey. The thing I think people fail to understand is the difference between cost and price. You have to think downstream. You have to think duration and what's it's going to cost to maintain it, as opposed to the initial cost and what you're going to get out of it. CORIAN^® is basically maintenance - free. Initially, the price may seem to be a little higher, but when you look at longevity and endurance, my God, you can't beat the cost of CORIAN^®.

We're delighted contractors. We do work in California, Arizona, Nevada and Oregon, primarily military and medical facilities.

Because of economic pressures, people in the healthcare industry are looking for materials that are going to last more than five to ten years. They want materials that can withstand the abuse that a medical facility gets. CORIAN^® gives them that.

A lot of people are realizing it's often more cost-effective to retrofit healthcare facilities rather than to tear them down and rebuild it. In the V.A. Hospital here in West Los Angeles, we were able to install CORIAN^® wainscoting in corridors without having to remove the ceramic tile wainscoting that was there. By adhering sheets of CORIAN^® to the old tile, we save our clients the expense and mess of demolition.

Joseph Anderson, M.D.
Director
Advanced Orthopedic Specialty Medical Center
Torrance, CA

By expanding workspaces and making them curved instead of square...they fit the human body better.

CORIAN^® allowed me to curve the surfaces the way I want, virtually in any shape I asked for; whereas with granite I was struck with very few curves. We never would have had these shapes if we didn't have CORIAN ^® We were able to gain function in our workspace.

What we achieved wouldn't have been possible with any other material.

The other nice thing about CORIAN^® is you don't have to be too creative with it. You can use a simple line and curve it around the perimeter and double it back on itself and get a very pleasing design without adding too much to it.

Our vision when we designed this facility was to have a very warm, welcoming environment. We wanted patients to feel relaxed. And we wanted patients to have every confidence that this facility was high-tech, state-of-the art. We used CORIAN^® to reflect the quality of what we do here. Perceived excellence is essential, and CORIAN^® is part of it.

A patient may not notice the decor, but he will notice the cleanliness. And with concerns such as AIDS in the workplace and contamination throughout the healthcare industry, cleanliness is certainly important to us, too. That's why we went to CORIAN^®. There are no hard corners, no open joints. Betadine doesn't stain it. CORIAN^® cleans right up.

A lot of architects who design healthcare facilites seem to be building boxes and they're not thinking of longevity. We wanted to have a 50-year building. I'm sure the CORIAN^® we put in will be around....