Designed by Callison Architecture, Inc., the 30th floor reception area of the 275,000-square-foot Boeing World Headquarters in Chicago, IL, features slate flooring, which was quarried by Burlington Slate, Ltd. in England.

Burlington Slate quarried and manufactured around 3,450 square feet of Kirkby slate tiles for the floor, and pieces measured 12 x 12 x ½ inches. The slate was supplied through two local distributors - Oregon Tile and Marble of Portland, OR, and Quarry SE Inc. of Seattle, WA.

According Brian Castro of Dave’s Tile, Inc. of Lombard, IL, which served as the contractor for the project, overall construction on the 30th floor took approximately 720 man-hours to complete. “The job was started in July, and the main installation was done a month later,” he explained. “We went back a few times for repairs and touchups, and had as many as five to six installers on the job at a time.”

A strict work schedule posed challenges for Dave’s Tile, Inc., and many overtime hours were necessary to complete the project on time. “The timeframe that Turner Construction was given was a very short period of time relative to projects before this one,” Castro said. “In turn, Turner gave Boeing a very aggressive schedule. It was a fast-paced, crowded project, and everyone was constantly fighting with the other trades at the site.”

In order to meet the tight deadline, workers put in many overtime hours, working 16-hour days. “Only 150 hours out of 720 were nine-to-five hours,” said Castro. “Only about 20% of the job was done under normal hours, and the rest was handled after hours to keep things rolling.”

Boeing, the world’s leading aerospace company and the largest manufacturer of commercial jetliners and military aircraft combined, designs and manufactures rotorcraft, electronic and defense systems, missiles, satellites, launch vehicles and advanced information and communication systems.