About Us

A.T. Villa is a company with a long, 90 plus year history that prides itself on providing innovative, award winning designs and high quality laboratory furniture products. We are headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and all of our products are manufactured in the United States.

A.T. Villa was a pioneer in the modular labortory furniture world. Starting back to the company's origins near Milan, Italy, the early designers at A.T. Villa were very much inspired by the modern design of office systems furniture coming out of the interior design powerhouses of Milan. It was only when the company entered into the US market in 1994 that we started to produce what is known as fixed casework for laboratories. Nowadays even these fixed systems are given more forethought into modularity.

We work directly with clients and through a network of representatives, most of which have a background in the sciences. We have vast experience and knowledge of designing and delivering flexible laboratory casework systems, on time and on budget. Project sizes vary greatly from smaller upstart companies or additions to major corporate, institutions and university projects in the multi-millions of product value. We have built up a very impressive list of clients worldwide and have worked with nearly every major general contractor and lab planning firm.

Lastly, we seem to enjoy a challenge. We strive to always look for ways to improve upon the design, concept, manufacturing processes and delivery for our products and projects, while looking for ways to reduce our carbon footprint. We always looking outside the box and will continue to do so.


Our History

Our company started in northern Italy in 1925. Our founder started making custom furniture and cabinetry in a small shop just south of Lake Como, Italy. Business grew and expanded into fabricating industrial and commercial furniture and the company expanded into steel components as well as wood. The company was approached by a major university in Milan in the 1950s to help them design and build unique tables and fume hoods for their chemistry laboratories. Word of the company and their unique furniture for laboratories grew and the Villa family decided to create a company that solely focused to service this market. Arredi Tecnici Villa, Spa. was incorporated in 1962 settling in an industrial complex between Lake Como and Milan, Italy.

A.T. Villa became one of the largest manufactures of laboratory furniture in Europe over the following decade. In the 1970s, the company started to develop its first modular lab casework system, which came to be known as Addendum, a vast product offering that was in production for 30 years. The Addendum system brought the younger ​Alessandro Villa, the third generation in the family business, to the United States to help expand the company's business. By the late 1980s, the company gained a footing in the U.S. market and eventually partnered with the Wright Line company as a manufacturing and sales group. By 1998 it became apparent that A.T. Villa needed a full presence in the U.S. and officially incorporated the subsidiary of A.T. Villa USA, Inc. in 1999. 

A.T. Villa achieved early success with numerous projects and being awarded some major projects in these early including GE Global Research Headquarters in Niskayuna, NY. This massive project utilized the Addendum O-Frame system and was delivered on schedule and on budget.

The facilities group from M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX approached the Italian design team in the very early 2000s after they had seen some of our products at a European lab design conference. M.D. Anderson had a visionary in Julie Collins to adapt the campus into an all mobile benching system. Most every major laboratory furniture company submitted benches to get approval and gain the business of this venture. In 2004 A.T. Villa was awarded our first of many projects with M.D. Anderson to outfit the 890,000 SF BSRB (Basic Science Research Building) with our Ergolab mobile benching solution. Ironically it was actually the newly established A.T. Villa US design team that developed the current Ergolab™ Design that proved successful. This led the beginnings of A.T. Villa's manufacturing in the U.S., and in a reversal of rolls, started exporting the products back to Europe.

In 2008 A.T. Villa was invited to participate in the selection process for the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery on the campus of UW-Madison. After a very competitive process A.T. Villa was awarded this project and enjoyed the opportunity to collaborate o this amazing project with a custom, design-build offering we call Bravo. in 2012 R&D Magazine awarded the WID project as Lab of the Year.

In 2013 A.T. Villa was purchased by a private group of investors from the U.S. and the global headquarters was newly established in Milwaukee, WI. Since 2005 all products for the US are manufactured in the US

In 2016 A.T. Villa again received recognition for "Innovative Design" from R&D Magazine for our installation of the Zayed ....at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX, which uses the Ergolab mobile benching system.


Our Process

Our products certainly set us apart from other manufacturers, as does our working process with our customers. We prefer to work closely with our clients and manage the process from start to finish. This approach allows the client and our team to communicate more efficiently, creating a better outcome in outfitting your lab with a new casework system.

We sell our products in the best manner that suits the client's needs and have worked with all of these scenarios for thousands of successful projects:

  • Direct sales to the client, with A.T. Villa managing the installation
  • Direct sales to the client, with the client managing the installation
  • Sales to the general contractor, with A.T. Villa handling the installation
  • Sales to the general contractor, with the general contractor overseeing the installation
  • Sales to the local rep or dealer with them managing the installation

In a nutshell we handle your project from top to bottom. A.T. Villa provides the service to directly manage:

  • Estimating
  • Shop drawings
  • Custom engineering (if applicable)
  • Oversee the entire manufacturing process
  • Project manage your installation

We use the best quality software and technology to not only manufacture our products but also to create and communicate with clients. It can save an incredible amount of time and frustration if we are given the ability to have a quick online video conference with the parties involved on a project very early. We have the ability to demonstrate 3D modeling in real time for you clearly understand how the furniture systems can work for your application. Instead of waiting for the 'mock-up' or products to show up months down the road you get a chance to understand the first day.

We always welcome the opportunity to walk clients through the A.T. Villa product offers and demonstrate the advantages of our designs. Once the lab planners have their layouts complete and a clear understanding of the equipment needs in the lab we can really get to work. With the ability to work directly with our staff you will get very fast response for drawings and costing. We will also make product solution suggestions if we see fit.