Upon walking into the lobby of Fitchburg, Wis.-based therapeutic research center Usona Institute, patients are greeted by a grand 1,296-square-foot sunburst floor centered with a stone medallion. The show-stopping floor was created by Winneconne, Wis.-based Oshkosh Designs and was such a massive construction that the company had to clear out its entire warehouse to build the floor. Oshkosh Designs builds parquet flooring, borders, and floor medallions, and each medallion is dry-fit in-house before being shipped to the customer for installation. But Usona Institute’s expansive lobby design presented a unique challenge for Oshkosh Designs, as they hadn’t created such a sizable inlay before—this one measured 36 by 36 feet. “If they had wanted it about a foot bigger in any direction, it couldn’t have fit in our warehouse,” Chief Operating Officer Tom Skoglind says. To build the medallion, Skoglind had to temporarily move the entire shipping department and storage out of the warehouse.
Courtesy of Oshkosh Designs
Other than the grand size of the floor, creating the floor was business as usual, Skoglind says. As with all of the company’s medallions, creation started with drawing a design with the customers. The planning process for this project took months, as there was a lot of back-andforth with the construction company, Kraemer Brothers, to ensure Oshkosh Designs could pull off creating the large floor. “ They kind of couldn’t wrap their head around how do we create such a huge floor here and give it to them,” Skoglind says.
Courtesy of Oshkosh Designs
Courtesy of Oshkosh Designs
Once the design phase was over, Skoglind says cutting and assembling the floor took about three weeks. The pieces of the stone medallion were cut using a water jet machine, while the wood floor, which is solid Brazilian cherry, was cut using a large-format laser. After cutting the pieces, the floor was assembled in the emptiedout warehouse to ensure a good fit. The floor was then taped together and separated into shippable chunks in a “jagged pattern” so the cuts wouldn’t be visible once installed. From there Oshkosh Design sent the floor to Fitchburg with installation instructions, and the floor was put together on-site like a puzzle. Skoglind says, “It looks like it was just built on site.”
The sunburst floor now occupies the center of the institute’s main entrance. Along with a large hanging art installation above it, the floor provides a scenic view for guests relaxing in the lobby.
SUPPLIERS: Laser: Kern Laser Systems | Wood flooring: Boehm- Madisen Lumber Co.
