The facades of an entire skyscraper of LASA VENATO VENA D`ORO®
The commercial grade LASA VENATO VENA D’ORO® from Lasa Marmo is characterized by its gold-yellow, orange to brownish veining on pearl-white, radiant Lasa marble. The striped and cloud-shaped veins of this variety symbolically represent the cosmopolitan city at the southern tip of Florida, especially when the first rays of sunlight rise from the turquoise-blue waters of Biscayne Bay in the early morning hours and bathe the skyline of the second largest city in the Sunshine State in an orange-yellow sunlight. Amidst a cluster of 100 other skyscrapers in Downtown Miami stands the SunTrust International Tower. The 125-meter high and 31-story skyscraper was erected in the early 1970s on an area of 41,000 m². The special feature of the building: all the masonry facade parts of the skyscraper are clad with LASA VENATO VENA D’ORO®.
The construction project was realized on behalf of the First Federal Savings and Loan Association of Miami by The Auchter Company, based in Jacksonville. When the building opened in 1973, with fewer skyscrapers gracing the horizon at the time, it was visible in most photos of the Miami skyline and was one of the city's most prominent buildings. Meanwhile, over 90 buildings are taller than the SunTrust International Tower. Throughout all the decades, the building has lost none of its attractiveness and radiance, due to its fascinating architectural exterior design, which consists of an interplay between glass and marble facades on the skyscraper itself. For the First Federal Savings and Loan Association of Miami, the first savings and loan association in the United States, the construction of its headquarters was a matter of prestige. The construction fell into a period when Lasa Marmo, under Giuseppe Sonzogno, was successfully able to activate business in the USA. Just a few years earlier, Lasa Marmo had been able to supply Lasa marble for the facades of City Hall Memphis (1961-1964) and the headquarters of the U.S. Tobacco Company Building in Greenwich. Now Lasa Marmo was able to equip an entire skyscraper with its marble refined in the Lasa factory. A total area of 8,000 m² of facade panels with a thickness of 3 cm and a polished surface of the LASA VENATO VENA D’ORO® variety were shipped to Miami. In addition to the large-surface facade parts of the six-story parking garage building, the load-bearing outer columns reaching up to the roof of the skyscraper are also clad with Lasa marble. Today, branches of Bank of America and SunTrust Bank are located in the building. In 2015, the SunTrust International Tower was renovated for 35 million US dollars. The renovation included a contemporary redesign of the interior and common areas, as well as the creation of a panoramic terrace. The last change of ownership occurred in 2018, when the bank and office building was sold to Pacific Coast Capital Partners (PCCP) for 127 million US dollars.
