Founded in 1913, the Formica Company boasts a rich history intricately linked with the development of Cincinnati. As the company expanded, its manufacturing campus gradually moved northward from the Ohio River, mirroring the city’s own growth. The Formica® brand has made a significant impact on corporate campuses not only through its own unique architectural expansion but also by manufacturing laminate products that have furnished corporate buildings since the 1930s.

Design and Growth

Design has been fundamental to the company’s growth. Collaborations with modernist designers such as Morris Sanders, Brooks Stevens, and Raymond Loewy, and later with Laurinda Spear, Abbott Miller, and Jonathan Adler, have been pivotal. From the 1960s onward, these architects, industrial and graphic designers, alongside a robust in-house design staff, have significantly influenced the creation of products that have defined interior aesthetics over the decades.  Additionally, Formica Corporation has collaborated with designers to craft chairs, objects, and installations, demonstrating the versatility of the surfacing material beyond the kitchen.

Formica Company’s Beginnings

Herbert A. Faber and Daniel J. O’Conor left their jobs as engineers at Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company in East Pittsburgh to form The Formica Insulation Company. With the aim to produce materials with electrical insulation properties using fabric and plastic resins, the men looked to Wall Street and Cincinnati (where Faber previously graduated from the University of Cincinnati) to fund their business. They received early seed money from a lawyer and banker in Kentucky, leading to the business’s establishment in the Cincinnati city center.

Faber created the name “Formica” as the new partnership planned to produce commutator V-rings, a rotary electrical switch in which a laminate replaced the mineral mica. Hence, “for” or in the place of “mica.” A modest beginning, the Formica brand grew to become one of the most recognizable names in the construction market.

Cincinnati City Center: The First Two Plants

The first factory opened in May 1913 at the northeast corner of 2nd and Main Streets, now the site of the Great American Ball Park and home to the Cincinnati Reds. Due to the threat of river flooding and increasing orders for V-rings and tubes, the company quickly moved four miles north to a second rented location at Spring Grove Avenue and Alabama Street. Here, they bought their first large press (24” x 36”) and began focusing on sheet production. The first sheet was produced on July 4, 1914, serving as insulated materials for the burgeoning radio industry.

A Move to Winton Place

In 1919, Formica Company moved a third time, another few miles north across from the historic Spring Grove Cemetery which when built (1844) was outside the city limits. The purchase of land and two existing buildings was double the size of the company’s rented space.  

In 1923 a new two-story concrete building was erected to house new presses and resin treating machines.  Investments were needed to make the companies growing list of industrial parts for sale that went into early home radios, automobiles, planes, electrical appliances, textile production machines and more.

In 1924, Formica recruited Jack Cochran, Jr., from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as its new director of research. His numerous patents not only shaped the Formica business but also influenced future laminate manufacturers worldwide. In 1927, he patented the decorative laminate sheet, “having lithographed wood grains of light color, employing an opaque barrier sheet to block out the dark interior of the laminate.” This was the first step towards the popular blond woodgrain laminate favored by furniture manufacturers. The success of repurposing black sheets from the radio industry to align with the Art Deco trend of glossy black and chrome spurred further decorative advancements. Between 1927 and 1930, the Formica R&D team developed inks and lithograph printing for woodgrain and marble papers, later advancing to rotogravure printing for more efficient decorative paper production.

Expansion and Innovation

In 1931, as the Great Depression affected industrial and electrical markets, the company pivoted to produce pastel and color laminates for architectural interiors and furniture. Leveraging its exclusive print and sheet lamination technology, Formica managers built a new business. It set up fabrication schools in Cincinnati and New York to train woodworkers, while sales teams promoted the easy-to-clean, vibrant plastic laminate. This strategic shift enabled continued investment and growth during challenging times.

When World War II began, the Winton Place plant redirected its efforts back to its original industrial products to support the war effort. It produced airplane parts as a substitute for the scarce aluminum. There were 88 separate Formica laminate pieces in the P-51 fighter plane alone.

Post-War Expansion to Evendale Campus and the World

In 1945, Formica managers met to decide the company’s future direction, aware that the construction field had been dormant for five years. They recognized the need to intensify efforts after the war to support the remodeling of neglected public buildings, the revival of companies, the production of office furniture, and the construction of new schools, in addition to kitchens, as service members returned home to start families.

By 1946, the company secured its early international expansion through a licensing agreement with British De La Rue, setting up campuses in Europe, Australia, South America, New Zealand, India, and South Africa. Following rapid growth, in 1977, De La Rue sold the Formica entities back to its parent company, American Cyanamid. Concurrently, American Cyanamid managed Formica’s expansion into the emerging markets of Asia. The post-war expansion activities extended the American brand and technology beyond Cincinnati, making Formica a globally recognized material and brand.

To restart the decorative business, Formica also fortified its laminate ranges by collaborating with prominent modernists of the time. In 1948, the company released the iconic patented design called Moonglo by architect Morris B. Sanders, Jr, who unexpectedly died later that year, cutting the creative collaboration short.

In 1949, Brooks Stevens Associates, known for its iconic designs for Harley-Davidson as well as the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile, Jeep Wagoneer, and the Hiawatha train, were hired for four years to add iconic designs to the range. The patented Skylark, fondly called Boomerang, is the most recognizable design. However, the printed woodgrains modernized with Stevens’ Luxwood range, later renamed Picwood, found their way into offices and corporate interiors for years.

With the growth of decorative laminate, a larger plant was needed. Formica moved again another ten miles north to the outskirts of Cincinnati, next to the recently opened GE Aerospace Plant Headquarters (1949) in Evendale, where land and labor were plentiful. In February 1951, the first 120,000 square foot building was opened to transition production equipment from Winton Place. Further expansions occurred in 1952 and throughout the fifties, until the present-day plant reached just under a million square feet. The Winton Place plant continued operations until it was shuttered in 1970, and Formica Corporation fully occupied the Evendale Campus.

With production expanding at the Evendale Plant, Raymond Loewy became the next industrial design collaborator, working with Formica from 1953 until 1964. His team created four optimistic editions of the “Sunrise Color Line,” which included an upgraded solid color range, recolored Skylark and Sequin patterns, and new patterns like the mosaic Capri, Milano Italian marble, Frost, and Nassau designs.

In 1960, the Evendale campus added a new 40,000 square foot research and development center next to the manufacturing plant to continue to innovate new surfacing options. The burgeoning in-house design department was moved from Winton Place and expanded to manage in-house printing and décor visuals. At that time, the Evendale facility also housed the largest rotogravure printing operation in the world, shipping décor paper to international manufacturing campuses. According to the company handbook: “In the period of only a year, the Graining Department can produce enough material, if stretched end-to-end, to reach from the North Pole to the South Pole, and then back to Evendale.”

In 1982, the business modernized surfacing by introducing ColorCore™, a color-through laminate developed in the Evendale R&D center. This new material was launched with a major exhibition and a competition called “Surface and Ornament” featuring furniture and objects designed by notable figures including Frank Gehry, Massimo Vignelli, Stanley Tigerman, Emilio Ambasz, Charles Moore, Milton Glaser, and Helmut Jahn. The furniture collection was displayed in museums worldwide.

Embracing contemporary ideas, Formica CEO Gordon Sterling commissioned Michael and Katherine McCoy from Cranbrook Academy in 1986 to “create an office of the future using ColorCore in special ways.”  The design brief was to incorporate the new aspect of computers as well as explore the informal nature of business meetings.  Formica materials evolved as corporate environments evolved.

Embracing contemporary ideas, Formica CEO Gordon Sterling commissioned Michael and Katherine McCoy from Cranbrook Academy in 1986 to “create an office of the future using ColorCore in special ways.” The design brief was to incorporate the new aspect of computers as well as explore the informal nature of business meetings.  Formica materials evolved as corporate environments evolved.

Present-Day Campus

The founder’s original vision for Formica Group, rooted in manufacturing, R&D, and design excellence in Cincinnati, continues to thrive and now extends beyond its home city. Today, Formica innovative surfacing materials adorn corporate campuses and offices worldwide. Additionally, its décor design development consistently offers modern visuals to furniture manufacturers, architects, and interior designers.

Throughout the company’s international expansion and ownership changes, the brand and laminate technology remain anchored at the Evendale Campus, where continual advances in both product and manufacturing have a strong emphasis on sustainability. The plant continues to boast one of the largest static decorative presses, measuring five feet wide by sixteen feet long.

In 2019, Broadview, a Netherlands-based global leader in material and sustainable technology, acquired Formica Group. The Evendale R&D center now spearheads laminate innovation for the company’s global operations, and along with the Evendale campus aims for carbon neutrality by 2030.

About the Author

With four decades in the international design industry, Renee Hytry Derrington began her career in product design at Kohler Co. She spent the past 35 years at Formica Group, ultimately leading design development teams across five continents. Renee directed the global efforts for the company’s 100th anniversary in 2013 and acts as the brand historian, collaborating with museums and publications. In 2018, Interior Design magazine recognized her for a ‘Lifetime of HiPness.’

Renee holds a degree in architecture from UW-Milwaukee and a master’s in industrial design from The Ohio State University. A strong advocate for education, she serves on the Dean’s Advisory Boards at both OSU and the University of Minnesota.

Renee lives on fourteen acres on Lake Michigan with her husband and animal family.