For the New York skyscraper "1345 Avenue of the Americas", also known as the Alliance Bernstein Building, Lasa Marmo supplied large-format 3 cm thick panels for the newly designed lobby counter in LASA BIANCO CLASSICO® "Scelto" in 2017. In addition, 1 cm thick floor tiles for the lifts in the lobby were manufactured and supplied in various sizes.
The owners of the New York Midtown skyscraper, Fisher Brothers, planned to redesign the entire lobby in 2016 and commissioned Chicago-based architects Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), one of the world's largest architectural firms, with offices in Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Washington D.C., London, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Dubai and Mumbai. The owners wanted to replace the original white-brown marble with a lighter, more spacious lobby and the choice for the marble lobby counter was refined white Lasa marble. The SOM architects paid special attention to the colour gradient of the lobby counter.
Ultimately, the clients decided for a "Dry Lay" in the Lasa marble factory. Each individual panel for the approximately 15-metre-long lobby counter was selected in advance at the factory according to its natural colour gradient and then shipped to New York for assembly. This method is now appreciated by many architects and designers and is offered by Lasa Marmo to its customers. Not only is the quality of the Lasa Marble appreciated by the clients, but also this special service, which is now additionally offered in the "Digital Dry Lay" process. With "Digital Dry Lay", architects and designers no longer have to be on site in the marble factory, but can select the material virtually and thus conveniently on the computer.
The redesign of the entire lobby area carried out by SOM was part of a US$ 65 million renovation. In addition to completely replacing the previous white-brown marble, the ceiling was raised to a height of 6 metres. The main entrance was extended and behind the new lobby counter made of LASA BIANCO CLASSICO® an 18-metre-wide glass wall with colour changing LED lights was erected.
The 191 metre, 50-storey building was built and completed by Fisher Brothers in 1969. The skyscraper is the 68th tallest building in New York. The skyscraper made history when on the 3rd of April, 1973, the US electronics engineer and inventor of the mobile phone, Martin Cooper, used a base station on the building to demonstrate the first hand-held mobile phone to the public. The skyscraper, built in the style of internationalism, also served as a film location in several US American films (e.g. Spider-Man).
