Often I ask architects and designers why they favored natural stone for a particular project, and more frequently than not I hear responses such as: “It’s timeless.” “We needed something durable.” “We wanted to use a local material.” These are all excellent reasons, and as members of the natural stone industry, music to our ears.
In this issue of Stone World, we showcase three unique and diverse projects that feature natural stone in their designs. The material used for each of them was quarried regionally and used in abundance. While all are beautiful and creative uses of stone, the one in particular that stands out to me is the memorial created at the Erlanger Children’s Hospital in remembrance of the young students who lost their lives in a fatal school bus crash that occurred almost three years ago in Chattanooga, TN. You can read the full story beginning on page 38, but to give you some insight, this is a shining example of how natural stone not only provided the enduring qualities needed for the project, but it also was chosen for its natural characteristics.