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"It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness." (Eleanor Roosevelt)
It seems nearly every project we do has at least some custom component that is needed. It is very common for client (or architect) to ask for significant additons or alterations to an existing product or concept. The there are the massive projects with a complete design-build process. So that is what we do and do often.
When your project requires new, custom and innovative high quality products we invite you to collaborate with us. A.T. Villa excels in design-build projects. We use the latest technology available today for the design, communication, fabrication and logistics process our projects. Our business decisions and investments have positioned us to successfully fulfill these types of projects on time and on budget with award winning results.
Our design team has the insight of product development and user experience to help provide a more successful end product. With a vast understanding of variety of manufacturing processes and a wide range of materials we can assist you to turn your dreams into a reality. Projects may require a complete new design process or a unique creation from a standard kit of parts. Our process often starts very simply. Quick concept drawings and images modeled in Sketchup Pro provide clients a full three dimensional view of possibilities and options. This creates a timely and cost effective exchange of ideas and direction.
Using REVIT®, BIM (building information modeling) software, ideas are transformed into a universal file format for architects and lab planners; allowing all to share common drawings and information. When conceptual design work is complete, we transition drawings and information into actual components using SolidWorks®. This powerful software functions seamlessly; linking component design with state of the art manufacturing equipment.
A.T. Villa utilizes the latest technology in manufacturing including fiber lasers and automated forming machines. We utilize lean manufacturing processes and manufacturing methods that allow for rapid prototyping and production to reduce lead times and costs.
The most successful products and projects are born from the collaboration of the client and producer. Our Ergolab™ Mobile Laboratory Benches have become one of our best selling products in the companies history.
This product line came to fruition as a collaboration with M.D. Anderson Cancer Center (MDA) in Houston, TX. In the early 2000s M.D. Anderson's amazing research facilities staff invited us to develope a mobile benching system based on specific critera. We succeded with a design that exceeded their expectations and reduced manufacturing costs. Our first project with MDA was the 890,000 SF Basic Sciences & Research Building (BSRB) installed in 2005. This massive high profile research project proved to be a wonderful luanching of this new product. We continue to this day to provide MDA with the Ergolab™ benches for their labs in all of their campuses. The product line has expanded as we have gained new client for this product and with it's simple design it can accomodate many requests.
The Bravo system was a design-build project for the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery in Madison, Wis. This venture was a partnership with University of Wisconsin/ Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) and the Morgridge Center for Research. The 330,000 square feet complex was design by Ballinger Architects.
The goal was to design a facility that would be viable for 100 years. The ultimate in flexability was required for the laboratory casework. With the exception a few wall mounted glassware cabinets and the casework under the fume hoods, all of the casework were caster-based mobile cabinets. Some of the structure of these benches came from the nucleaus of the Ergolab™ design but with a far more internal use of services for gas and power inside the uprights. All of the services were designed a modular components. These bench structures are not UL listed but the components are. With this approach gases, power, shelving, lighting....everything involved in the benching system can be moved, relocated and adjusted in the labs with out requiring new benches to be ordered.
This project and it's systems had the honor of winning R&D Magazine's Lab of the Year 2012.
We began working with a private client and their architect on a new project that was to utilize our Ergolab™ mobile benches and the architect had specified numerous power pole types of structures for services to be distributed in the labs. These were typical aluminum structures that are very common but as we discovered, they simply were not the right product for the requirements. They needed much more room due to a large variety of gas and power services needed with their equipment in the labs.
We were able to very quickly (within a couple days) provide the clients with a new concept. We called these Satellite Service Columns. They were designed to be modular, moveable and universal, which greatly reduced the manufacturing costs. With this design were able to eliminate the multiple variations in the project down to just two types that could serve all the needed criteria in the laboratory. These columns have proven very successful and are now being used in many newer projects . In a larger form of flattery our competitors quickly adapted our concept.