40,000 square meters of Laaser marble for the largest subway station in the world
Lasa (Laas)-New York. From 2012 to 2016, Lasa Marmo realized the project to provide the materials for the new subway station at Ground Zero, the World Trade Center Transportation Hub. This consisted of the production of floor and wall panels, plinths, massive steps, wall coverings and other special fittings made from Lasa marble of the type Lasa Bianco Nuvolato®. In the course of the four-year production period, over 70,000 different parts weighing some 3,000 tons were manufactured and packaged in the Lasa Marmo factory and transported by sea to New York.
The state-of-the-art subway station – resembling a white dove of peace externally – is the implementation of the winning project designed by the Spanish-Swiss architect Santiago Calatrava. In 2004, he won the tender for the new design of the WTC Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH) Station, an interchange station and the third-largest transport hub in New York, located beneath the former Twin Towers. Calatrava sent his people to Europe, more precisely to the White Water Quarry in Lasa (Lasa) in the search for that very type of marble, which in his vision would best embody the principal interior element at the heart of the project. Following protracted negotiations with the Lasa Marmo Executive Board, agreement was finally reached in a 100-page contract for delivering the Lasa white gold to America. The first delivery took place on 2nd May 2012. A further 154 containers were planned to follow in the next four years. Some 40,000 square meters of Lasa marble were thus shipped overseas. On 3rd March 2016, the new subway station in the heart of New York City was opened for 200,000 daily travelers – with the main hall of the "Oculus" subway station gleaming in a white splendor thanks to the noble marble from South Tyrol. Our white marble was first laid in the East West Connector, a connecting passageway between the PATH Station and Brookfield Place, then followed by the Oculus, the platforms, steps and much more. Numerous retail shops can be found in the main hall of the station, and those people with time on their hands can take a timeout from the hustle and bustle of the 10 million city in the planned restaurants. Irrespective of the advertising effect involved in such a major contract, the completion of the order also ensures the continued existence of jobs as well as an economic upswing, which these days can no longer be taken for granted.
