About Piquarium
Piquarium, a California Corporation, was created out of our president's passion for art, unique furnishings and stress free environments. By combining these three attributes, we created Piquarium; a truly distinctive and elegant piece of living artwork.
During the three years of Piquarium's development, our business principles were also established. These principles include our commitment to provide beautiful, unique and compelling home and business furnishings, utilizing the highest quality craftsmanship at reasonable prices. We warranty all of our products and commit ourselves to our customers' satisfaction every single day.
Piquarium manufacturing plant:
This is Andrew, who's working the Altendorf sliding panel saw, which cuts and shapes our frames. We call him "Fingers" because, as you can see, he's one of the few in the shop that still has all ten. Kidding. We then apply the finishes, laminates and metals to our MDF frame/skeletons.
Master woodworkers Mark and Tak work on assembling the Piquarium cabinets, which is the structure that sits behind the frame and supports and surrounds the tank. The cabinets are constructed of extira, which is the strongest, most water resistant and most durable composite wood product available. We've used the highest quality engineering, materials, and hardware.
Also, we send our cabinet material out to have a melamine (laminate) surface applied. It's an expensive process but well worth it. Every millimeter of the seams and joints of our cabinets have been carefully treated with waterproof industrial glues and silicone sealers providing you with the highest level of confidence in your purchase. We extensively test and challenge our cabinets in their ability to repel water. The least scientific of the 3 tests we conduct is the old "turn multiple glasses of water upside down on the surface and keep them there for several days" method. Not one drop of water penetrated our black melamine surface.
Mark McGrath is the president and founder of Piquarium. He grew up in Alameda and Lafayette, California in the San Francisco Bay Area. He still lives within a few miles of his childhood homes.
Mark believes that life is not a dress rehearsal, so he has enjoyed taking risks and exploring a few different roads. His adventures include careers in acting, hospitality, art, catering, and technology, in that order. He has managed sales teams numbering from 3 to 600, and taught sales and marketing techniques to IBM and to the general public nationally.
One of the most unique chapters of his working career was with Transcisco Tours, a 15 million dollar luxury cruise train operating from San Jose, traveling to Lake Tahoe twice weekly. Mark was hired to create the on-board product and experience from scratch. He created fine dining, full bars, and on-board entertainment within the confines of railroad cars. His product, the "Sierra 49er Express", garnered national attention from exposure on CNN and The Robin Leach Show.
His San Francisco catering company's clients included NBC, Tiffany & Co, Neiman-Marcus, Danielle Steele, Oracle, and many other top international companies and the cream of San Francisco society.
Mark has been a painter all his life. His uncle put a paintbrush in his hand, along with a collection of oil paints and a blank canvas when he was 10. After many years of experimenting with pen and ink, charcoals, watercolors, oils and acrylics, he found that he most enjoyed painting large canvases with abstract themes. He has had his work shown and many of his pieces reside in homes and offices. His style is bold, colorful and physical. The only time Mark uses a brush is to sign his work. All other paint is applied via palette knives, sponges and his hands and arms. He now lends his style to Piquarium frames in the MRM Original collection. He paints these, one at a time, often working with customers’ suggestions on color, density and intensity. The frames evoke the style of Mark's hero in painting, Jackson Pollack.
There is a story behind Piquarium’s birth. In 2004, Mark had a close relative fighting cancer in a care facility in San Mateo. This relative always lived on, or near the water. Mark took a look at the boring landscape painting across from her bed and told her that there’s got to be something better to look at day in and day out. Mark at first thought about setting up an aquarium (the big box on the floor type) in her room, but the room was tiny. So, thoughts shifted from the wall to aquariums and back. Why couldn’t there be an aquarium that hangs on a wall? The next time he visited he had some rough drawings with him. She loved the idea. The next visit he had a very crude, small prototype with him. The plan, you see, was to bring the ocean to her.
This small idea for a loved one eventually turned into Piquarium, Inc., which now ships all over the U.S. and to Hawaii and Canada. As of January 2010, there are over 500+ Piquariums out there in homes, offices, restaurants, bars, hotels, salons, spas, medical facilities and senior living facilities, etc.
Mark is very excited to have created a product that transforms any environment with beauty, color, life and tranquility. We dedicate it all to R.M. You are missed. Xoxoxo.
Piquarium Info:
Contact Piquarium
1-888-201-2788
In Fall 2009, Piquarium was chosen from tens of thousands of products to be featured in the San Francisco Designer Showcase which displays the finest in home and office décor. The San Francisco Chronicle called Piquarium "the highlight of the space"
Donald Joseph Architecture and Interior Design's Karen Calija tours the "work in progress" SF Designer Showcase and talks about Piquarium:
Check out the video
Portion of Proceeds:
A percentage of Piquarium Inc.'s profits are donated to the following:
