The Italian Trade Commission in Los Angeles is the headquarters of the National Marble Center, an information clearinghouse on the dimension stone industry in Italy. The ITC is a registered CES provider of the American Institute of Architects and has been sponsoring educational seminars for architects around the country for the last 15 years.

Other presentations at Focus Italia included a hands-on Stone Mosaic Exhibit as well as an Education Tour of Italy offered by the ENIT, the Italian Tourism Board. The featured speaker of the seminar was Vincent Marazita, an international consultant in the dimension stone field who has presented seminars on sourcing and designing with dimension stone for the last 18 years in the U.S. and abroad.

Architects who participated in the seminar received 1.5 HSW credits towards AIA requirements, as well as a copy of ITC's “Marmora” plate book, a technical guide to over 70 dimension stones from Italy along with ASTM test results for each stone. At the end of the session, participants received a chance to win a free round-trip economy class ticket to Italy during the Carraramarmotec international stone exhibition in Carrara, Italy, in 2005.

For more information on the seminar program, contact The Marble Center, C/o The Italian Trade Commission, 1801 Ave. of the Stars, Suite 700, Los Angeles, CA 90067; Phone: 323-879-0950; Fax: 310-203-8335; E-mail: atok@itcla.net; Internet: www.marblefromitaly.com.