CLEVELAND, OH - The Marble Institute of America (MIA) has begun accepting entries for its 2002 Pinnacle Awards competition, which celebrates excellence in commercial and residential stone projects around the world.

Awards will be judged for beauty, creativity, ingenuity and craftsmanship, and will be presented in four categories: Commercial Interior, Residential Interior, Commercial Exterior and Residential Exterior. The judges of this year's competition will be Joshua Zinder, AIA, a senior project manager at Michael Graves & Associates in Princeton, NJ; Monica J. Gawet, owner/president of Tennessee Marble Co. in Friendsville, TN; and Vincent Migliore, a renowned stone consultant who serves as the MIA's technical director.

The entry deadline is September 20, 2002. Winners will be announced in December at the MIA annual convention in Baltimore, MD, held in conjunction with StonExpo, the natural stone industry trade show. The competition is open to all MIA member companies; membership information is available at www.marble-institute.com.