. The Pinnacle Awards recognize excellence in commercial, residential and renovation/restoration of natural stone projects worldwide.
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, limestone and other natural 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.