page_title: Armstrong World Industries
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Armstrong World Industries / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Picture of Armstrong Cork Company (formerly of Armstrong World Industries) located at 23rd and Railroad Streets in the Strip District neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on December 1, 2009. The two main buildings of the complex were built around 1901, and the section between the two buildings was added in 1913. The building complex is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Architect: Frederick J. Osterling (1865–1934). Architectural style: Romanesque Revival, Beaux-Arts. Today, the building is maintained as loft apartments (since May 2007), and is called "The Cork Factory " (also known as the "Cork Factory Lofts", and "The Cork Factory - loft apartments on the river") at 2349 Railroad Street in Pittsburgh, PA.
context_page_description: Armstrong World Industries, Inc. is a Pennsylvania corporation incorporated in 1891. It is an international designer and manufacturer of walls and ceilings. Based in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, AWI has a global manufacturing network of 26 facilities, including nine plants dedicated to its WAVE joint venture. In 2011, Armstrong's net sales were $2.86 billion, with operating income of $239.2 million.
  Armstrong World Industries, Inc. emerged from Chapter 11 reorganization on October 2, 2006. Its stock began trading on the New York Stock Exchange October 18, 2006, under the ticker symbol AWI. The Armstrong World Industries, Inc. Asbestos Personal Injury Settlement Trust, holds approximately 66% of AWI's outstanding common shares. Armstrong's “Fourth Amended Plan of Reorganization, as Modified, ” dated February 21, 2006, and confirmed by U.S. District Court Judge Eduardo Robreno in August 2006, become effective Oct. 2, 2006. The Plan includes a comprehensive settlement resolving AWI's asbestos liability by establishing and funding a trust to compensate all current and future asbestos personal injury claimants.
context_section_description: In 1860, Thomas M. Armstrong, the son of Scottish-Irish immigrants from Derry, joined with John D. Glass to open a one-room shop in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, carving bottle stoppers from cork by hand. Their first deliveries were made in a wheelbarrow. Armstrong was a business pioneer in some respects: he branded each cork he shipped as early as 1864, and soon was putting a written guarantee in each burlap bag of corks he shipped from his big new factory. The company grew to be the largest cork supplier in the world by the 1890s. The company incorporated in 1891.
  Cork began being displaced by other closures, but the company introduced insulating corkboard and brick. In 1906, two years before he died, Thomas Armstrong concluded that the solid foundation of the future was covered with linoleum, and construction began on a new factory in a cornfield at the edge of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. In 1909, Armstrong linoleum was first offered to the trade.
  After corkboard, the logical move was to fiberboard, and then to ceiling board. Cork tile and linoleum led to vinyl flooring, then ceramic tile, laminate flooring and carpeting.
  In 1917, Armstrong Cork signed with the Batton Company advertising agency, a relationship that continues to this day through their corporate descendants.
  In 1998, Armstrong acquired Triangle Pacific Corp., a leading manufacturer of hardwood flooring and kitchen/bathroom cabinets.
  In 2009, Armstrong's annual net Sales Total US$2.8Billion.
  Armstrong Cabinets is no longer owned by Armstrong World Industries. The business was sold to American Industrial Partners on October 31, 2012.
  In 2016, Armstrong spun off the flooring business into a new company, Armstrong Flooring. NYSE: AFI
caption: Former Armstrong Cork Company building in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (built circa 1901)
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