SunTrust International Tower

The façades of an entire skyscraper made of LASA VENATO VENA D'ORO^®

The commercial variety LASA VENATO VENA D'ORO^® of Lasa Marmo is characterized by its golden yellow, orange to brownish grain on pearly white shining Lasa marble. The striped and cloudy veins of the variety literally stand for the cosmopolitan city at the southern tip of Florida, especially when the first rays of sunshine rise from the turquoise waters of Biscayne Bay in the early morning hours and bathe the skyline of the second largest city in the Sunshine State in orange-yellowish sunlight. Amidst a collection of another 100 skyscrapers, the SunTrust International Tower is located in downtown Miami. The skyscraper, 125 meters high and 31 stories high, was built in the early 1970s on an area of 41,000 m². The special feature of the building: All brick façade sections of the skyscraper are clad with LASA VENATO VENA D'ORO^®.

The Jacksonville-based ‘The Auchter Company’ was commissioned by the First Federal Savings and Loan Association of Miami to construct the building. When the building was opened in 1973, not many skyscrapers graced the horizon. It was visible on most photos of the Miami skyline and was one of the most famous buildings in the city. Today, more than 90 buildings are higher than the SunTrust International Tower. In all these decades, the building has lost nothing of its attractiveness and radiance due to its fascinating architectural exterior design, which consists of the interplay between glass and marble façades 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 took place at a time when Lasa Marmo, under Giuseppe Sonzogno’s guidance, was successfully establishing new business deals in the USA.

A few years earlier, Lasa Marmo, as a subcontractor, had already been able to clad the façades of the City Hall Memphis (1961-1964) and the headquarters of the U.S. Tobacco Company Building in Greenwich with Lasa Marble. Now Lasa Marmo was able to equip an entire skyscraper with marble refined at the Lasa plant. A total of 8,000 m² of 3 cm thick façade slabs with a polished surface of the LASA VENATO VENA D'ORO^® variety was shipped to Miami. In addition to the extensive façade sections of the six-storey car park building, the external columns supporting the façades extending to the roof of the skyscraper are also clad with Lasa marble. Today, counters of the Bank of America and the 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 and 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 US$127 million.

See CE certificate for slabs for cladding here.

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