The Marble Institute of America (MIA) announced the winners of the 2013 Pinnacle Awards competition. The Pinnacle Awards recognize excellence in commercial, residential, and renovation/restoration of natural stone projects worldwide. Projects selected as winners must demonstrate exceptional beauty, creativity, ingenuity and craftsmanship in the use of granite, marble, travertine, limestone and other natural stones. The sponsors of the Pinnacle Awards are Custom Building Products and Aqua Mix for the Pinnacle Commercial Awards, BLANCO for the Pinnacle Residential Awards and Coldspring for the Pinnacle Renovation/Restoration Awards. The competition is open to MIA members around the world.
The MIA also presented the 6th annual Grande Pinnacle Award, sponsored by Marmomacc. A Grande Pinnacle Award was also presented to the architect involved with the winning project. The 2013 Grande Pinnacle Award winner is: North Carolina Granite Corporation of Mount Airy, NC for the amazing Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park on Welfare Island, New York, N.Y. The architectural firm of Mitchell/Giurgola Architects, architect of record for the project, was also presented with the award.
The 2013 Pinnacle Award winners are:
• Commercial Exterior Award of Excellence to Coldspring, Cold Spring, Minn., for the Intuit, Inc. headquarters in Silicon Valley, CA.
• Commercial Exterior Award of Excellence to Coldspring, Cold Spring, Minn., for the Ralph L. Carr Colorado Judicial Center in Denver, CO.
• Residential Interior/Exterior Award of Excellence to Valders Stone & Marble, Inc., Valders, Wis.,for a Long Island Residence in Long Island, NY.
• Residential Interior/Exterior Award of Excellence to M&G Contracts (S) PTE LTD, Singapore for the Ardmore Residence in Singapore.
• Renovation/Restoration Award of Excellence to Miller Druck Specialty Contracting, Inc., New York, N.Y., for the 632 Broadway building in New York, NY.
• Renovation/Restoration Award of Excellence to Rugo Stone, LLC, Lorton, Va., for the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Wichita, KS.
• Commercial Exterior Award of Merit to Bestview International, Glenview, Ill.; Coldspring, Cold Spring, Minn.; and KEPCO+, Salt Lake City, Utah, for the City Creek Center in Salt Lake City.
• Commercial Exterior Award of Merit to Polycor, Inc, Quebec, Canada for the Place d’Armes in Montreal, Canada.
• Commercial Interior Award of Merit to Associated Imports, Atlanta, Ga. for the Music City Center in Nashville, Tenn..
• Commercial Interior Award of Merit to Kenneth Castellucci & Associates, Inc., Lincoln, R.I., for the Liberty Mutual Insurance Company World Headquarters in Boston.
• Commercial Interior Award of Merit to Creative Edge Master Shop, Inc., Fairfield, Iowa, for the Renaissance Shanghai Putuo Hotel in Shanghai, China.
• Residential Interior/Exterior Award of Merit to Stones and Roses International Co. Ltd., Samutprakam, Thailand for the Sukhothai Residences Unit K. Chumpol in Bangkok, Thailand.
• Residential Interior/Exterior Special Award of Merit for Craftsmanship to StenCentrum, Molndal, Sweden, for a Stockholm Residence in Stockholm, Sweden.
Two of the award winners featured countertop projects – the Residential Interior/Exterior Award of Excellence at the Ardmore Residence in Singapore and the Residential Interior/Exterior Special Award of Merit for Craftsmanship at a residence in Stockholm, Sweden:
Ardmore Residence, M&G Contracts, Singapore
Like an artful masterpiece, Ardmore Residence exhilarates, engages and inspires. Rising boldly above Singapore’s premier residential address, Ardmore Park, the 36-story residential tower redefines the luxury living of an urban home with imagination, privileges and services that are exclusive to its residents. The apartment’s spaces conjure up the harmony of a light-filled urban cocoon rising above the energy of the city. Orchard Road’s landmarks dazzle in crisp clarity from the apartments facing south, while the units with a north orientation enjoy Bukit Timah Hill’s lush green foliage. The living and dining wing opens to a double-volume balcony that presents an impressive space for residents who enjoy entertaining at home in style, or simply relaxing in their luxury of space. At more than 2,000 sq. ft. each, all of the 56 luxurious units have been fitted with premium stone finishes, carefully selected and processed to achieve the optimal aesthetical effect. M&G inspected and selected the blocks directly from quarries located in Iran, Italy and Spain, and then fabricated according to the customized finishes of each unit type. The flat cut pieces and solid curved pieces for each unit were then laid out per the shop drawings, inspected and approved by the owner’s representatives, before individually numbered and packed for delivery to site.
Stockholm Residence, StenCentrum, Molndal, Sweden
This project began four years ago in a meeting with architects. The meeting concluded with one goal; white statuario marble, very characteristic, big tiles and book matched. The pursuit for good material started immediately. Most blocks did not fulfill the requests, but finally, one was found. It was a very sound block with the right dimensions and heavily veined. Realizing that it would be much more difficult to achieve the look with this strong veining, the project forged ahead. Before presenting the material to the client, the opportunities were discussed with the architects. Sketches were made of the best use of the material. The architects were very open-minded, realizing the difficulties of the project, but also very demanding regarding design and details. StenCentrum staff went to Stockholm to measure the two bathrooms in question. After making drawings of the rooms, slabs were compared to the drawings spread all over the workshop. Realizing dimensions from the architect’s drawings could not be followed new sizes were created to follow the book matched pattern. Frames to doors, windows and shelves were carefully cut to book match the wall pieces.
Congratulations to all the winners.
Judges for the 2013 Pinnacle Awards competition were:
• Kent Duffy FAIA, SRG Partnership in Portland, Ore.
• Steve Poland, Ankrom Moisan Architects in Portland, Ore.
• Christian Pongratz, Pongratz Perbellini Architects in Verona, Italy.
• Michael Twiss, immediate MIA past president, Columbia Stone, Inc. in Tualatin, Ore.
• Chuck Muehlbauer, technical director, Marble Institute of America in Cleveland, Ohio.
