Western Specialty Contractors was tasked with removing sealants in all of the building’s exterior joints and replacing them with new silicone sealants, as well as removing all of the building’s worn exterior quartz tiles and replacing them with new ones made from Himalayan quartz.

Each tile was cut into 2½- x 8-inch pieces, adhered onto CMU walls with Laticrete thinset and then grouted. Western Specialty Contractors’ crews installed 14,796 square feet of quartz tile, finished with a rough split-face texture. Finally, the job was completed by chemically cleaning and pressure washing all of the bank’s exterior marble panels to a like-new appearance, while all of the exterior windows were resealed using silicone caulking.

Although there weren’t any major issues with the design, several obstacles did need to be overcome. “Our biggest challenge was lead time,” said Wicht. “Also, the materials had to be trucked through muddy roads into India, then fumigated, stored in a warehouse for a week and finally shipped to Los Angeles, only to have the same process repeated here.”

Construction was completed in June 2014, and in the end, any complications proved to be well worth the effort. “Broadway Bank was very pleased with how well the new facade matched its adjacent administrative building constructed about two years prior, considering that the quartz tiles were from the same quarry, but mined at different times,” explained Wicht. “We were able to successfully mirror the two facades by performing tedious mock-ups for the banks new look using tiles from multiple pallets, which provided a variety of brown, blue and gray hues that the white quartz contained.”