CLEVELAND, OH -- The Marble Institute of America (MIA) has issued a call for entries for the prestigious 2009 Pinnacle Awards Competition, which includes the recently added Grande Pinnacle Award. The Grande Pinnacle Award will be awarded to the best winning entry across all categories.

This year's competition will again focus on projects in the following categories: Commercial Interior, Commercial Exterior, Residential Interior or Exterior, and Renovation/Restoration. Entries are judged on the basis of excellence in design and implementation, quality, workmanship and suitability of materials.

The Pinnacle Awards are open to all MIA-member companies. Submitted projects are to have been completed between January 2006 and July 2009. Deadline for entries is Friday, July 10, 2009.

"Since MIA initiated the Pinnacle Awards to honor the best projects in the natural stone industry, the event and the winners have grown in stature." said Gary Distelhorst, Executive Vice President and CEO of the MIA. "The global publicity given to the winning entries is a wonderful showplace for the work submitted by MIA-member companies."

The Pinnacle Awards were enhanced in 2008 with the addition of the Grande Pinnacle Award -- a "Best in Show" category that is sponsored by Marmomacc, the stone trade fair based in Verona, Italy. The company selected for the Grande Pinnacle Award will receive a trophy created by an award-winning architect, designer and restoration specialist as well as a trip to Marmomacc 2010 in Verona, Italy.

Judging for the 2009 Pinnacle Awards will be held in Los Angeles on August 5 by a panel of experts from the stone industry and architectural community. The awards will be presented at StonExpo/Marmomacc Americas in Las Vegas in October.

"We want MIA members to show the world what their craftsmen can do by joining the list of select companies that enter the Pinnacle Awards competition," said Distelhorst. For further information, visit the MIA Web site at www.marble-institute.com, or call the MIA office at (440) 250-9222.