COLD SPRING, MN -- Coldspring® – the leading quarrier and fabricator of natural stone and bronze manufacturing in North America – is proud to announce the company has received two Pinnacle Awards of Excellence from the Natural Stone Institute (NSI) in the Commercial Exterior category. The two award-winning projects include the Charles Library at Temple University in Philadelphia, and Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids, MI.
These highly coveted awards are given to projects whose beauty, creativity, ingenuity and craftsmanship exemplify professional mastery in the use of natural stone in commercial and residential applications. The awards were recently celebrated at The International Surface Event in Las Vegas, NV.
“Coldspring is honored to receive recognition for the creativity and collaboration among all team members on these two projects,” says Brent Koosmann, director of marketing, Coldspring. “Each award-winning project plays a significant role in its community and highlights the innovation and expert craftsmanship found at Coldspring.”
The first award for Charles Library recognizes one of the country's most modern and significant new library constructions. The building’s striking and challenging design features more than 37,000 square feet of Mesabi Black® granite from Coldspring. Expertly manufactured vertical sections of the granite pieces in a split-face finish clad the library’s solid base and coordinate with the existing campus landscape.
Comments from the judges provide insight on their selection of Charles Library as a 2021 Pinnacle recipient: “Well-controlled stone color and quality that respects the proper use of stone,” and “Love the texture of the surface treatment and the innovation of the open-faced rainscreen design.” Additional members of the team include the architecture firm of Snøhetta, New York, and stone installer Dan Lepore and Sons, Conshohocken, Philadelphia.
Next, Coldspring’s award for the new 69,000 square-foot Welcome Center for Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park includes more than 71,000 square feet of Echo Lake® Granite from Coldspring. Design goals for the project included tying together the many parts of the garden into a cohesive whole and creating a Welcome Center to inspire everyone who enters. The architects had very specific requirements for the granite’s allowable color range, markings and inclusions. During extraction, Coldspring successfully chased the desirable black markings, not allowing unwanted markings in the product. Many panels were extremely large, rectilinear pieces requiring special detailing for anchors and relief angles for installation. Echo Lake granite proved to be a beautiful material to ground and define the landscape at Meijer Gardens.
Judges commented, “Great job of keeping it homogeneous yet still allowing the fairly strong movement of the pattern to symbolically move throughout the walls – elegant, “This is museum-quality stonework – a celebration of stone and a nice backdrop to the art and sculpture.” Additional members of the team include the architecture firm of Tod Williams Billie Tsien, New York, and stone installer JK Masonry, Grand Rapids, MI.
“Coldspring is a proud member of the Natural Stone Institute, which elevates the work of projects with natural stone through the Pinnacle Awards of Excellence,’ Dan Rea, vice president of sales, Coldspring. “The two award-winning projects from Coldspring are among the best-designed projects in the building industry, and we’re honored to be involved in them.”
