Margaritelli USA Inc., the subsidiary of Italian flooring manufacturer Margaratelli Italia, recently opened its first showroom in the United States dedicated solely to the company’s Listone Giordano line of prefinished hardwood. Though more than 300 Listone Giordano showrooms are currently in operation in countries as far ranging as Israel, Brazil and Japan, the new showroom is the first of its kind in the United States for Margaritelli.

Located at 128 E. 32nd St. in Manhattan just across from the New York Design Center, the showroom features more than 1,000 square feet of space and is managed by Three L & Co. The showroom layout and displays were designed by Ramondo Fillippo, an architect based in Rome who works exclusively for Margaritelli. His designs were based on Margaritelli’s worldwide corporate style, which is meant to promote public brand recognition and to offer room for many customers to browse at once. Spotlights suspended on slim-line, bright chrome tracking are placed strategically to give the showroom a light and airy ambience.

One of the unique features of the new showroom is a section of floor made from two layers of highly impact-resistant glass. Many 3-by-3-inch panels of glass were laid to form columns of a grid, with real leaves pressed between the layers to give customers the impression that they are walking in a forest, according to Margaritelli. The rest of the floor incorporates the company’s Listone Giordano line in French White Oak, specially designed in 3-by-3-inch raised panels for use in the showroom. The flooring is topped with a durable commercial finish.

Once the showroom space was chosen and measured, the interior accouterments took 60 days to manufacture and approximately 15 days to install, according to the company. This included flooring, freestanding and wall-mounted displays, lights, glass panels, and furniture. The furniture was custom made in Italy.

From the entrance, customers are led to a series of freestanding displays and sample tables. Most of the wood samples are mounted on whiteboards, which list descriptions of the product using such criteria as wood type, hardness, stock dimension, and country of origin.

A separate display board illustrates color variation. Six sample strips are half-exposed to light and half-exposed to darkness, to demonstrate how the original color tone of a particular wood may change once it has been installed. Sample boxes are available with lengths of the wood flooring to demonstrate how the product would look installed.

A piece of a real log displays where and how the manufacturing process starts, emphasizing the quartersawn technique, which is widely used to manufacture the entire range of Listone Giordano products, according to Margaritelli.