Rocky Mountain Hardware, HOK Product Design Create New Collection of Antimicrobial Door Hardware

Rocky Mountain Hardware and HOK Product Design have joined forces to create Verdura, a new collection of antimicrobial door hardware. With an eye toward healthcare, spa and wellness centers, and even educational institutions, the designs are being hand cast using CuVerro®, a bactericidal copper from Olin Brass. While Rocky Mountain Hardware has distinguished itself over the past 20 years for designs produced in art-grade bronze, the company recently added the option of CuVerro. This new generation material is the first class of solid surfaces registered with the EPA to kill 99.9 percent of infectious bacteria within two hours 24/7* – its properties never washing out or wearing away. Moreover, CuVerro is highly sustainable, produced from 95 percent post-consumer materials including recycled copper wires and is 100 percent recyclable.

The venture with Rocky Mountain Hardware represents the first hardware line to be created by HOK Product Design, and it is a collection that fills a void in
the healthcare world where aesthetics are sometimes sacrificed to practicality.

“We saw a need for hardware that’s sleeker, more modern and that speaks to the trend to create health and wellness interiors with a homier sensibility and that are less institutional,” says Susan Grossinger, head of HOK Product Design. “Of course, to be able to offer that in a surface that’s also antimicrobial adds even more to the appeal this will have for specifiers not only in the healthcare field, but crossing over into educational facilities, public and institutional, corporate, hospitality, aviation and any other types of projects where there are financial benefits in reducing the amount of infectious bacteria on common touch surfaces.”

Grossinger paired two uniquely qualified designers from HOK for the collaboration. From the architectural firm’s Tampa office she enlisted Beth Bernitt and from its Chicago base she recruited Mark Banholzer. Bernitt, whose father was a dean at the University of Arizona’s College of Mines, actually had experience working in Arizona copper mines as a teen, and she was well aware of the bactericidal properties of the element. Banholzer is one of HOK’s top experts in healthcare design, a veteran of the category for nearly 30 years of his career.

The initial Verdura Collection includes a 3-x-3-inch and 3-x-9-inch escutcheon (the larger size incorporating the option of a locking function), 2 lever-style handles, and grips in a choice of 4 sizes. Three EPA-registered copper alloys are being offered with a choice of finishes: rose bronze, silicon bronze and white bronze – all with matte or brushed options.

Source: Rocky Mountain Hardware, HOK Product Design