Event
Tour: Historic Ford Assembly Building/SunPower &Vetrazzo
Join us prior to the AIA East Bay 2009 Member Appreciation Party to tour some of the other spaces in the historic Ford Assembly Building. Both SunPower and Vetrazzo are opening their doors and leading tours of their exciting manufacturing facilities. The tours will also be lead by Marcy Wong of Marcy Wong Donn Logan Architects, the Ford Assembly Building project architects.
**Registration for this tour includes a ticket for the Member Appreciation Party immediately following.
California-based SunPower designs, manufactures and delivers the planet's most powerful solar technology broadly available today and is well known for its signature black, high efficiency solar panels. Residential, business, and utility customers worldwide rely on the company's experience and proven results. SunPowers East Bay operations, including about 250 employees, occupy 175,000-square-feet in the Ford Assembly Building. Functions housed at the facility include commercial- and utility-scale solar power system design and engineering, research and development, structured finance, and light manufacturing. SunPower is very proud of the sustainable materials used throughout the renovated space, as well as features such as maximized natural light, locally-sourced furniture and, of course, the 1-megawatt SunPower solar power system that provides clean, renewable solar power to all tenants in the building. As a historic landmark building located in a redevelopment district, the Ford Assembly Plant helps serve SunPowers commitment to environmental responsibility and creative re-use.
Vetrazzo (the product) was invented in 1996 in Berkeley, California - back when "green" was just a color. Heres the story:
A glass scientist working on his PhD, driven by his passion for the environment, gets the idea to recapture the inherent beauty of recycled glass by transforming it into a functionally superior building material. He teams up with a like-minded Bay Area architect and they form a partnership to produce Vetrazzo in small, hand-made batches for the local building community.
But word gets around about this stunning, innovative material and soon orders are coming from far away places like the Ritz Carlton hotel in Miami South Beach. Over the years, production moves from garage to warehouse to larger warehouse but try as they might, production capacity cant catch up with demand.
Fast-forward 10 years. An enthusiastic Vetrazzo customer sees an opportunity to help bring sustainability to the surfacing market in a much bigger way. Armed with passion for her countertop, keen business sense and a large Rolodex, she sets out. Its not long before a new management team is formed, capital is raised and a new company is built around the wildly successful Vetrazzo product.
In October 2006, the new team, under the banner of Vetrazzo, LLC, opens the doors on a brand new, state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in a recycled Ford auto plant on the Bay in Richmond, California. A month later, the new era kicks off by shipping the plants first Vetrazzo panel to actor and environmental activist Ed Begley, Jr. for installation on the nationally televised show, Living with Ed.
In an era where its hard to buy anything thats not made overseas, we think Henry Ford would be proud.
Don't miss out on a wonderful opportunity to tour both of these exciting spaces.
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LocationFord Assembly Building
Harbour Way
Richmond, CA 94804
United States
Categories
| Minimum Age: 12 |
| Kid Friendly: No |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: No |
| Wheelchair Accessible: No |
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