U.S., Mexico Projects Get Carrara Awards Nod

CARRARA, Italy – Natural-stone projects in the United States and Mexico won the Marble Architecture Awards (MAA) for 2014.

The MAA, organized by the Internazionale Marmi e Macchine Carrara (IMM), is now in its 26th year, and recognizes work from specific geographical areas each year on a six-year cycle. This year, the juried competition considered projects, completed since 2000, in North America and using natural stone in what the awards note as “uses and application solutions of excellence.”

The awards covered three areas: exterior cladding, interiors, and urban design.

First Prize, External Cladding
Lakewood Cemetery Garden Mausoleum, Minneapolis

HGA Architects and Engineers, Minneapolis (Joan Soranno, architect)

Italian stone suppliers: SANTUCCI GROUP Marble, Granite di Carrara
Materials: White Carrara marble (Italy); granite (United States).

First Prize, Interiors
135 Main Street, Building Lobby, San Francisco

Aston Pereira and Associates, San Francisco

Italian stone supplier: HENRAUX Spa
Materials used: Golden Age Melange marble (Greece), Jura beige limestone (Germany), Cremo Delicato marble (Italy), Yellow onyx (France, processed in Italy)

First Prize, Urban Design
Parallel Lives, Vera Cruz, Mexico

Archetonic – Jacobo Micha Mizrahi, Mexico City

Materials used: Clear Gray granite, Dark Gray granite, Black volcanic stone, White Guerrero marble (Mexico); Absolute Black granite (India).

Special Mention
The Villa, Santa Monica, Calif.

Lehrer Architects (Michael Lehrer), Los Angeles

Italian stone supplier: BERTOZZI FELICE (Fabrizio Rovai)
Materials used: Lens stone sandston (Portugal); Port Laurent and Belgian black marbles (Belgium); Costa Smeralda granite. Alhambra and Pietra Serena limestone, Verde Laguna and Botticino marble (Italy); and Versailles, Rain Forest Green, Absolute black and Labradorite granites.

“It’s been a year in line with what is influencing the market of Mexico, Canada and the United States at this moment: projects of medium size, with great attention to detail, quality of materials and finish in this phase that follows a great crisis that began in 2007 and that has definitely slowed down the construction of large buildings with significant uses of stone in both internal and external works,” said Fabio Felici, IMM chairman and an awards judge. “The use of materials, which come from many suppliers around the world, not just Italians as in the past, further highlights the globalisation and competition that governs the markets.

“Italian companies are now involved in very strict comparisons as regards the level of prices and competitors while for Mexico there emerges an interesting fact: the increase in the quality of buildings in the design and finishes to be attributed in part to the changes occurring after its entry into the NAFTA.”

Other judges were Arturo Giusti, chaiman/CEO National Council of the Association of Architects, Landscapers, Planners (OAPPC) and of the Order of Massa Carrara; Raimondo Lovati, director of Confindustria Marmomacchine; and Gian Luca Atena, representing the ICE-Agency for promotion abroad of Italian firms. Marcantonio Ragone of IMM coordinated the organization of the award.

The awards will be during this year’s CarraraMarmotec on May 21-24, with a ceremony where the designers will be called upon to illustrate the characteristics of the work and the reasons for their choice of materials. On that occasion, the official catalogue with technical specifications of the materials and photographs of the project will be presented.

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