Chef John McKetchny of Elliott's at the Blackburn cooked up a finger-food feast for a crowd that included Harriet Van Wart and Margaret Puff, granddaughters of the Building Center's founder, Charles T. Heberle.
Also on hand was Building Center CEO Phil Arsenault, who — when he wasn't juggling trays of hot hors d'oeuvres — was introducing guests to the cutting-edge sustainable materials that were everywhere in evidence.
The occasion was the weekend grand opening of the Building Center's new Kitchen Design Center.
One super-size wall unit, Arsenault explained, was made of Lyptus, a product of fast-growth Brazilian eucalyptus which renews forestation to the highest established global standards of sustainability.
The floors are made of bamboo, which regenerates at least eight times faster than hardwood, and is almost three times more stable than solid maple hardwood.
The jewel-like "Vetrazzo" countertops? Sealed mosaics of recycled shards of genuine San Francisco commercial glass, comparable in strength to quarried granite.
The Building Center's showcase is not your average kitchen showroom. Under Arsenault's leadership, its state-of-the art green status showed that the Building Center, founded in 1903, has fast-forwarded into its second 100 years with a 21st century commitment to sustainability.
Despite the environmental emphasis, not everything was code green. The five display lines — Crystal, Showplace, Homecrest, Aristokraft and JSI — are high-end industry performers, and include innovative new synthetic materials.
When staff designer Mari Benham asked guests if they could tell the difference between two apparently marble countertops, the answer was "no." Benham explained that the difference is thousands of dollars — and the reason is that one countertop isn't marble but a cutting-edge compound that's virtually indistinguishable in every way from the real thing.
A recent graduate of Boston's New England School of Design, Benham joined head designer George Whitehead, who spent the past year laying down much of the groundwork for the launch.
They were joined by Susan McAuliff, who learned the financial end of kitchen design as a Coldwell Banker real estate broker through the fix-and-flip boom years when a remodeled kitchen added 20 percent to the resale price of a house, giving kitchens the biggest slice of residential remodeling sales that topped a $170 billion annual revenue mark.
Though those days are gone, kitchen remodeling remains the single biggest area of investment spending in the American home, national statistics show.
According to Arsenault, the economic downturn created an opportunistic climate. The slowdown in new building has made materials more available, prices more affordable, and left contractors with a better pool of talent¬ to choose from.
The Building Center's new kitchen design center didn't happen despite the economic downturn, but because of it, he said.
Americans still spend an average of $26,000 on a typical kitchen conversion, just like they did in the boom days.
But the trend is away from the "trophy kitchen" that typified those times, and toward substance, security, warmth, earthy tones and textures, subtle fixtures and quiet quality, analysts have said.
As for the presence of all things sustainable?
Well, when a company's lasted 107 years, sustainability is already part of the brand.
Joann MacKenzie can be reached at 978-283-7000 x3457 or jomackenzie@gloucestertertimes.com.
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