Masonry Magazine August 1966 Page. 28
Natco Introduces New Design Concepts
A portfolio of new design concepts in structural glazed tile for commercial interiors was revealed by the Construction Products Division of Natco Corporation, Pittsburgh. The designs, unprecedented in the structural clay products business are expected to kindle new interest by architects, designers and contractor engineers in this permanently attractive building material.
Created by Peter Muller-Munk Associates, Inc., Pittsburgh, one of the nation's leading industrial designers, the concepts, illustrated in a series of 22 full-color architectural renderings, show Natco's standard products in some rather nonstandard applications. One sketch, for instance, shows a standard cove base tile used to form a channel recess light box. Others use the tile vertically instead of horizontally, while still others use it in unusual geometric patterns.
"The design concepts are the first step in a program to get commercial building designers to think tile," announced J. B. Fuqua, chairman and president of the corporation. Natco, a leading manufacturer of structural clay products since its founding in 1889, is answering a long-standing industry-wide need to demonstrate that structural clay tile can be aesthetically pleasing as well as practical, according to Mr. Fuqua.
Natco vice president and general manager of the Construction Products Division, Ewing Horner, emphasized that the concepts used only simplified shapes of existing products, which is in harmony with projected industry simplification plans. "Since the concepts use only our 6T and 8W series tile, conventional brick shapes and Natco's Uniwall, they are entirely practical," he added.
The design concepts program isn't the only new thing at Natco. The company's sales and earnings have increased substantially for the first time in several years. President Fuqua recently announced that sales for the first half of 1966 were up 19 per cent over the similar period in 1965, and net income was $335,000 as compared with $9,000 at the end of 1965's first half. Natco is listed on the New York and Pittsburgh Stock Exchanges.
The Construction Products Division, which until a year ago was the only division of the 76-year-old company, is now but one of five wholly owned subsidiaries and divisions. These include: Natco Clay Products, Ltd., Toronto, Canada; Nebraska Crib & Silo Co., a wholly owned subsidiary in Fremont, Neb., that manufacturers grain drying and storage equipment under the "Stormor" trademark; Natco Communications, Inc., which recently acquired radio station WTAC in Flint, Mich.; and Natco Financial.
Peter Muller-Munk, (left), president of Peter Muller-Munk Associates, Inc., shows Ewing O. Horner, (right), vice president and general manager of Natco's Construction Products Division, a key element in one of the designs that the nationally known industrial firm recently created for Natco. The architectural sketches, done by Peter Muller-Munk Associates, show new and unusual uses of Natco's standard structural clay tile for building interiors.
A combination of Natco's 67 structural wall tile and gloss wall is used in the unusual wall shown on the left. Utilizing light as a design element in an otherwise plain wall creates a dramatic and interesting interior. In the sketch on the right, Natco's unglazed Security Screen tile becomes a decorative division wall-to interrupt a long wall of 8W structural tile and provide a planter area.
NEW P-306 TWIN PISTON Grant CONCRETE PLACER & GROUTING MACHINE
SIMPLICITY IS EFFICIENCY
Pumps materials easily in range from 9" slump to 5" slump through hose over 200 long. Has satisfactorily pumped materials over ten stories high.
30 H.P. V-4 Wisconsin Engine
4" Channel Frame back to back construction for max, strength.
Simplest, most trouble-free design yet devised!
GIANT Industries
8481 Whittier Boulevard, Pico Rivera, California
Oxford 96388 Raymond 35218
28
MASONRY . August, 196