CLEVELAND, OH --The Marble Institute of America(MIA) has announced the winners of the 2013 Pinnacle Awards competition during its annual awards luncheon held during StonExpo/Marmomacc Americas 2014. 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,limestoneand othernatural 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. During the awards luncheon, the MIA also presented the sixth 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 Corp. of Mount Airy, NC, for the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park on Welfare Island, New York, NY. In 1973, Welfare Island, a 2-mile-long strip of land in the center of the East River of New York City, was renamed for President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and the southernmost 4 acres were dedicated as a memorial for him. It was designed by the preeminent architect, Louis I. Kahn in the 1970s. The "room," the southernmost part of the completed design, is the physical realization of Kahn's famous quote: "The walls parted and the columns became," his notion about a basic relationship between two indispensable architectural elements.

The project evokes the eternal, a fitting memorial to Roosevelt's legacy and his four freedoms (speech, worship, want, fear). All granite that makes up Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park was quarried in Mount Airy, NC, at the North Carolina Granite Corp. A totally of 12,100 tons (roughly 24 million pounds) of granite were quarried to produce 7,700 tons (roughly 15 million pounds) of dimension granite. The solid granite blocks used to make the "room" measure 6 x 6 x12 feet and weigh 36 tons. The architectural firm of Mitchell/Giurgola Architects, Architect of Record for the project, was also presented with a Grande Pinnacle Award.

The 2013 Pinnacle Award winners are: 

  • Commercial Exterior Award of Excellence to Coldspring, Cold Spring, MN, for the Intuit, Inc. headquarters in Silicon Valley, CA.
  • Commercial Exterior Award of Excellence to Coldspring, Cold Spring, MN, for the Ralph L. Carr Colorado Judicial Center in Denver, CO.
  • Residential Interior/Exterior Award of Excellence to Valders Stone & Marble, Inc., Valders, WI, 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, NY, 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, IL; Coldspring, Cold Spring, MN; and  Kepco+, Salt Lake City, UT, for the City Creek Center in Salt Lake City, UT.
  • 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, TN.
  • Commercial Interior Award of Merit to Kenneth Castellucci & Associates, Inc., Lincoln, RI, for the Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. World Headquarters in Boston, MA.
  • Commercial Interior Award of Merit to Creative Edge Master Shop, Inc., Fairfield, IA, 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.

Congratulations to all the winners.

Judges for the 2013 Pinnacle Awards competition were:

  • Kent Duffy FAIA, SRG Partnership in Portland, OR
  • Steve Poland, Ankrom Moisan Architects in Portland, OR
  • Christian Pongratz, Pongratz Perbellini Architects in Verona, Italy
  • Michael Twiss, Immediate MIA past President, Columbia Stone, Inc. in Tualatin, OR
  • Chuck Muehlbauer, Technical Director, Marble Institute of America in Cleveland, OH