PROJECT TO CREATE PUBLIC ART WALK
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COLD CLIMATE ON PLANET BCTF
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BUILDER CLAIMS TREATED UNFAIRLY
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WEDNESDAY
MARCH 14 2012
www.burnabynewsleader.com
Clara Kovats just returned from providing facials to the stars, at the Oscars. See A12
Mayor endorses Topp
MARIO BARTEL/NEWSLEADER
Mike Hauner shows off one of the distinctive glass tiles produced by his family’s Burnaby company, Interstyle.
Canada’s biggest—and only—tile maker Mario Bartel photo@burnabynewsleader.com
Georgia Hauner has come across a lot of words in her 80 years. That’s why the matriarch of the family that founded and still runs Interstyle Ceramic and Glass is called upon to concoct the names for the distinctive glass tiles that are produced in their Burnaby factory and ¿nd a home on walls, countertops, tables, Àoors and benches. Since 1983 they’ve produced more than 45,000 colours and designs, each with its own unique name like “sunset,” “delphinium,” and “olivine.”
In a squat industrial building alongside Winston Street, Interstyle is Canada’s largest designer and manufacturer of ceramic and glass tiles. It’s also the only one. Interstyle’s three giant roller kilns and six Àat bed kilns ¿re a kaleidoscope of glass squares, rectangles and stones that are coveted by high-end designers and architects. Locally, their tiles can be seen at the Vancouver International Airport, Children’s Hospital, the new convention centre, and the recently completed Harmony House eco demonstration project in South
grand opening march 17
Burnaby. But they’re coveted by snazzy retailers, upscale restaurants and hotels as well as stylish homes around the world. Not bad for a company that started from a boxcar full of broken leftover glass. That’s the opportunity that was presented in the early 1980s to Ernesto Hauner, an Italian-born ceramic tile maker who immigrated his family to Canada from Brazil. He started experimenting with glazes to create colourful ashtrays. But people weren’t smoking as much anymore so by 1983 Interstyle was the only
company making tiles of fused glass. “Glass is a very interesting medium to work with, to go beyond its limitations,” says Mike Hauner, Ernesto’s son, who now runs the business with his brother Kim. “It’s a technical and creative challenge. It’s very labour intensive.” Interstyle employs about 120 people at its Burnaby factory which runs 24 hours a day, ¿ve days a week. They cut the sheets of incoming glass, colour it, ¿re it, create the mosaics, then ship and pack it. Every order is custom to the clients’ speci¿cations. Please see TILE, A3
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Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan has publicly endorsed Brian Topp in the federal New Democrat leadership race. The nod came following the ¿nal NDP leadership debate Sunday in Vancouver. “I have met with all the candidates, looked closely at their proposals, and watched this debate unfold very closely,” said Corrigan Monday. “I have determined that Brian Topp is the best candidate to lead the NDP, defeat Stephen Harper, and elect a new national NDP government.” In supporting Topp, the party’s former president, Corrigan joins wife Kathy Corrigan, NDP MLA for Burnaby-Deer Lake, who had endorsed him a few months earlier. The party has been in a leadership race since September, after the death of former leader Jack Layton last summer. “In my view, Brian has demonstrated the right combination of skills and vision to win the election and lead an effective and progressive government,” said Derek Corrigan. Please see TOPP, A3