The Building Stone Institute (BSI) 2006 Convention will be held in San Diego, March 1-5, 2006.
"The convention is a golden opportunity for each member to utilize the greatest reason to be a member in the BSI, and that is to network with your fellow members," said Brenda Edwards, BSI president.
The BSI is excited to introduce a two-track program this year. At times throughout the seminar program, members will be able to select between two different programs. Program topics include: natural stone trends, immigration law, residential ornamental stone products, silicosis, material handling, branding, resins, customer service, equipment development and adhesives.
BSI members will also have a wonderful opportunity to take part in the annual golf outing at the Steele Canyon Golf Course, a guided walking and shopping tour of historic San Diego, a video scavenger hunt, a progressive dinner in the Gaslamp Quarter, as well as services at the luxurious Regency Spa.
"San Diego offers so many wonderful activities," Edwards said. "Whatever your interests are, you are certain to enjoy this year's convention."
For more information, visit www.buildingstoneinstitute.org, or call (866) 786-6313.
Rolling Rock Building Stone Launches New Product Line
Rolling Rock Building Stone Inc. announced the launch of a new natural adhered stone veneer product line, part of its RealStone VeneerTM brand. The Platinum SeriesTM is made exclusively at the newly constructed production facility on the Rolling Rock Building Stone's main complex located outside of Boyertown, Pa.
This new line will expand the RealStone Veneer brand to envelop architectural styles that have long been extremely popular. Now, many of the proprietary products that Rolling Rock Building Stone has quarried and marketed for decades are available in an adhered natural thin stone veneer. The 10 introductory colors available are Brookfield Buff®, Huntington Gray®, Clover CreekTM, WashingtonTM, Alverson Limestone® Irregular and Ashlar Blend, as well as North Country QuartziteTM Ashlar, Oak Island QuartziteTM Ashlar, Crystal Lake® Ashlar, and Wissahickon SchistTM Ashlar.
Rolling Rock Building Stone produces non-architectural dimension stone in sandstone, quartzite, gneiss, dolomite and limestone. Its product list includes building stone veneer, thin stone veneer, landscaping stone and related items. All products are available nationally through a network of authorized dealers and distributors. The company owns quarries and maintains offices in Pennsylvania and New York. All New York assets are held by a solely owned subsidiary, Greystone Quarries Inc.
Gallegos Corporation Wins Safety Award
Liberty Mutual Insurance Company awarded The Gallegos Corporation (TGC) its highest commendation, The Gold Award, for its safe job sites. As a matter of fact, over the past year, TGC's safety record beats the national average by 80 percent (from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Department of Labor). With a peak workforce of more than 500 trade workers, the company has lost only three work days due to injuries or accidents from September 2004 to September 2005.
"It's hard to beat the national average, especially when you take into account the various trades of work The Gallegos Corporation does," said Chris Volz, technical consultant for the loss prevention department at Liberty Mutual. "It's a tremendous accomplishment. The last time we gave out this award was three years ago."
Volz stated that statistics on the company's overall performance show lost time claim frequency has decreased by 50 percent; loss rate of payroll has decreased by 54 percent; disability day rate has decreased by 79 percent; and claim frequency has decreased by 29 percent.
The Gallegos Corporation takes the health and safety of its employees very seriously, said Mike Haller, the company's safety director. Over the past six years, the company has done a lot to increase safety on their job sites, including employee safety training programs, controlling material handling, a safety incentive/recognition program, random safety audits and a zero-industry culture. Each of the 450 field employees is essential to an effective safety program.
"I am really proud of our crews for not only logging a million man hours over the last year, but taking on projects in areas where we have never worked, and for doing all this with very few accidents, and no major injuries," said Gerald Gallegos, CEO and founder of TGC.
Gallegos founded TGC in 1970 as a specialty stone masonry company. In 1980, TGC was integral in building Beaver Creek Village, part of the secluded, alpine-style Beaver Creek resort near Vail, Colo. Since that time, the company has expanded trades and now also specializes in distinctive residential and commercial projects, including quality plaster and stucco, concrete, marble and granite work, and stone sales.
The Gallegos Corporation is headquartered in Vail, Colo., and has offices in Denver, Telluride and Aspen, Colo.; Sun Valley, Idaho; Lake Tahoe, Calif.; and Bozeman, Mont.
Global Granite & Marble Opens New Missouri Location
A variety of natural stone from around the world is now available at the new Global Granite & Marble stone selection center in Nixa, Mo. The St. Louis-based importer of fine natural stone opened the center in response to high demand from custom homebuilders and new commercial ventures in southwest Missouri.
The stone selection center represents the third location for Global Granite & Marble, which imports granite, marble, slate, travertine and a variety of other stone slabs from more than 30 countries, including Brazil, Italy, India and Spain. The firm's other locations are in St. Louis and Louisville, Ky.
The general manager of the Nixa facility is David Brotherton. A Global Granite & Marble employee since 2004, Brotherton previously managed the company's St. Louis natural stone tile division. He holds a master's degree in business administration from the University of Iowa and a bachelor's degree in applied physics from Saint Louis University. Industry assignments have taken him to Brazil and Egypt, where he worked directly with international stone suppliers.
"Based on Global Granite & Marble's existing customer relationships with many local fabricators, the Springfield area was a natural choice for a third company location," Brotherton said. "Plus, southwest Missouri is a great strategic fit for expanding our Midwest distribution network."
More than 1,000 slabs in more than 100 colors eventually will be showcased at the center, with current inventory totaling 500 granite slabs in 80 different colors. The choice jumps to 6,000 slabs in more than 300 different colors because of the extensive selection found only a few hours away at the St. Louis warehouse. Slab deliveries to the Springfield area can be made within days. The Nixa center also features stone tile, trims and accessories such as custom sink basins and lazy Susans. A variety of natural stone cleaning and maintenance products also are for sale.
Orange County Great Park Competition Selects Master Designer
Corporation Board of Directors enthusiastically selected Ken Smith Landscape Architect of New York, a world-renowned landscape design firm, as master designer of the Orange County Great Park. Ken Smith and his team will be charged with the overall responsibility of creating the master design for the Orange County Great Park. Ken Smith team's most famous designs include the East Pines Master Plan and the U.S.S. Intrepid Sea, Space and Air Museum, both in New York, and Third Street Light Rail Project in San Francisco.
Ken Smith earned the support of two jury panels assembled to judge the designs of landscape architect firms competing to be master designer of the Orange County Great Park in an intense eight-month competitive process. The jurors, all distinguished leading architects, designers and academics, were passionate about Smith's conceptual originality and use of dominant features.
Smith's design includes a canyon joining the Agua Chinon corridor with a lake. An amphitheatre faces east across the lake. The design retains the old runway as a linear monument to the Marine history with fighter planes stationed along its entire length. Orange bicycles would be used as a mode of transportation throughout the park, and three large hot air balloons will be an attraction for visitors to see the entire park from above.
Smith's design also responded to the public's needs and desires. More than 3,380 individuals from around the county participated in an online poll and nearly 1,700 individual comments, of which 20 percent were from Irvine residents, were positive responses to Ken Smith's proposal. Smith's design captured the public's imagination with lakes, an amphitheatre, sports park, museums and a natural grove.
"I wholeheartedly and enthusiastically support both the public's preference and that of the distinguished jury design panel to select Ken Smith Landscape Architect as master designer of the Orange County Great Park," said Larry Agran, chair of the Orange County Great Park Corporation. "I will do everything in my power to make sure the Orange County Great Park is the most extraordinary park to be built in the 21st century."
Ken Smith Landscape Architect was one of 38 world-renowned design firms invited to compete for the honor of becoming the Master Designer of the Orange County Great Park. Twenty-four firms responded. From this, the Orange County Great Park Board of Directors chose seven semi-finalists based on the recommendations of an expert jury. In late September, the seven firms presented their designs to the Orange County Great Park Board of Directors and to the public. More than 3,380 members of the public reviewed the designs in an online poll or on display at Irvine City Hall. After formal presentations, the public participation process, and recommendations of a second jury panel, the Orange County Great Park Board chose three semi-finalists. Ken Smith Landscape Architect was one of the semi-finalists.
The Orange County Great Park staff will immediately begin contract negotiations with Ken Smith Landscape Architect. Following negotiations, the firm will begin work on the master design, which will include building and structural themes, scale of the elements, building materials, lighting, a landscape pallet and planting schemes, gateways and edge treatments, signage and way finding, and pedestrian and vehicular circulation patterns.
A groundbreaking ceremony is slated for Spring 2006.
The 1,347-acre Orange County Great Park will be a major metropolitan park and the focal point of redevelopment of the larger 4,700-acre former Marine Corps Air Station El Toro located in Irvine, Calif., and designated for closure more than a decade ago. The Great Park will include extensive natural areas in addition to recreational and cultural uses. The remaining 3,700-acre area will be revitalized by the Lennar Corporation and will include residential, educational, commercial, and retail uses as well as other supporting facilities.
For more information about the Orange County Great Park, visit www.ocgp.org.
Minnesota Rocks!
The International Stone Carving Symposium will hold an extraordinary stone event in St. Paul, Minn., May 21-June 30, 2006.
This unique event will shine a public spotlight on the art of creating stone sculptures, as a group of master stone carvers from Minnesota and around the world gather in St. Paul to create stone sculptures in a 7,000- to 10,000-square-foot, open-air studio. Located at St. Paul College, the studio will give passers-by and visitors an opportunity to witness the creativity and discipline involved in creating a work of art.
Artists representing Japan, Germany, Mexico, China, Zimbabwe, Finland and Egypt will take part in this event, along with six stone sculptors from Minnesota. Each artist will work with a block of stone from a Minnesota quarry. At the end of the symposium, the artists will have created approximately 13 works of art for placement in public places, including Saint Anthony Village and throughout St. Paul.
Minnesota holds some of the earth's oldest and most valuable stone. Morton gneiss, from the southwest corner of the state, is 3.5 billion years old. Younger granite can be found around St. Cloud, while limestone and dolomite is found around Mankato and in the Mississippi River Valley. Whatever the age, whatever the origin, Minnesota stone is sought after for buildings and art around the world.
This event is presented by Public Art St. Paul, in collaboration with the stone industry of Minnesota and the sister cities of St. Paul and other Minnesota communities. The Minnesota Ceramic Tile and Allied Trades provided initial program funding.
For more information, visit www.publicartstpaul.org.
National Landscape Architecture Month
The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) has declared April 2006 National Landscape Architecture Month. This year's theme is "Discover Landscape Architecture."
National Landscape Architecture Month is an opportunity for ASLA chapters across the country to reach out and inform people about landscape architecture as a viable profession, as a means to help create a sustainable environment, as a way to help encourage healthier lifestyles, and as a way to beautify residential areas.
"Over the years, landscape architecture has evolved to touch so many areas of planning and design. It's important that we help shed light on the many benefits of landscape architecture, while letting potential professionals know what opportunities they may have for practicing in this very worthwhile field," said Dennis Carmichael, FASLA, president of the ASLA. "Landscape architecture has so much to offer, as a profession and as a means to help improve our environment and communities."
April was selected as National Landscape Architecture Month because it encompasses the birthday of Frederick Law Olmsted (April 26), the founder of the American landscape architecture profession, and Earth Day (April 22).
Founded in 1899, the ASLA is the national professional association for landscape architects, representing more than 16,000 members. Landscape architecture is a comprehensive discipline of land analysis, planning, design, management, preservation and rehabilitation. The ASLA promotes the landscape architecture profession and advances the practice through advocacy, education, communication and fellowship.
For more information, visit www.asla.org, or call (202) 216-2371.
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