Commercial Architecture September 2017 - 20

FEATURE

exterior restoration

very uniquely qualified to do this. We used a Gmm Litox
CNC machine, which can accommodate large pieces.
This was critical for anyone doing this type of work.
Hand carving would be great, but it's way too slow."
In total, Tennessee Marble Co. cut more than 500 of
the nearly 4,000 custom stone pieces. "Georgia Marble
would send us raw material in different thicknesses-
nothing was cut to size," explained Gawet. "There was a
tremendous flow. Sylvie would get a batch of tickets of
what was needed and Ryan Cole, our production manager, would review the tickets and tell Sylvie, for example,
'We need X amount of raw material or this size slab.'
Sometimes, we would have to recut thicknesses. They
were all over. Part of the challenge was to be good stewards of the raw material. We would utilize material based
on the batch she gave us."
According to Gawet, the turnaround time was fairly
quick. "Maybe six weeks," she said. "The challenge would
be that you would get two pieces very similar in shape,
but in some cases, there was a difference of 1/4 inch in
size or shape. We would program the CNC for minor
variations and then finish it by hand. Sometimes, we

The restoration was an elaborate process involving a dedicated team of professionals. The project took four years, requiring extensive scaffolding and
protection from the Midwest's harsh winter elements. Photo courtesy of Polycor

were programming for just a couple of pieces. Each piece
was incredibly custom."

used to expedite a new element that could not afford the

If there was a unique "one-off " piece, time was taken

Cutting Edge Stone was also working diligently to

lead time of a carved model. "While the idea of bringing

to model it. "It didn't make sense to send it offsite," said

complete their assigned tickets. Over the course of the

the 21st century technology of digital template was worth

Lackovic. "We would carve it onsite. Because of schedule

four-year fabrication span, Polycor supplied the fabricator

a try, the end result was a mixed lot," he explained. "The

though, we had to make sure not to have too many 'one-

with more than 130 full-sized slabs ranging in size from

scanned model only reflected one element, whereas our

off' pieces. There were only so many people who had

4 in. thickness to 16 in.

carved models reflected the 'spirit' of many elements.

skills to do this, and they could only work for so long.

By August 2016, Cutting Edge Stone had supplied

Also, the scanned model reproduced deteriorated ele-

They could only do so many pieces a month. It had to be

1,125 pieces of stone to the project, with each piece differ-

ments and our master carvers had to rework the scanned

well choreographed."

ent from the next. Sometimes two or more profiles were

models to look like a new element."

After years of dedication and hard work, the expan-

necessary on an individual piece of stone. "Our state-of-

Lackovic explained that the carved pieces arrived at

sive team involved in the stone restoration of the Minne-

the-art lineup of 14 multi-axis CNC cutting and milling

the jobsite for the most part finished to the project stan-

sota State Capitol Building completed its enormous task

machines, including six profiling saws from Gmm, three

dard. "We would send models to Italy and Canada and

in October 2016-a month ahead of schedule.

from Omag, and one from Prussiani, allowed efficient

say, 'Make it look like this,'" she said. "The pieces would

"No one really knew if the best would be good

and detailed machining of each piece," said the company.

get onsite and they mostly worked, but sometimes they

enough," said Lackovic. "We were so fortunate to have so

were different.

many people that are still able to perfect this craft and

REPLICATING THE STONE CARVINGS

"When bringing [a carved piece] up to be installed,

produce this high-quality work. We ended up with the

Decorative stones, such as capitals, scrolls, swags, and

there still was the process to make it work. Many times

floral patterns, were carved to match the original stone-

they could get it in the demolition opening, but it didn't

work on the building. During the restoration project,

fit. They had to be carved in the field to blend and match.

This article originally appeared in the Spring 2017 issue of

TCTM had master carvers onsite to produce full-sized

TCTM had four carvers onsite, and then Mark 1 had a

Building Stone magazine.

models when two or more matching elements were re-

few that qualified, that were doing a lot more than just

quired. "Replicating a single model, a pilaster capital for

blending. Some were actually creating pieces from

Jennifer Richinelli has covered the stone industry since

example, hand carved by various craftsmen 110 years ago

scratch-without a CNC machine. The carvers onsite

1996 and focuses largely on design. Her work has appeared

and each pilaster capital slightly differing, proved to be

were absolutely heroic. It was very impressive."

in a range of consumer and shelter publications.

dream team." CA

challenging for the entire team," said Becker. "Communication between the architects and master carvers was
critical, as elements from various building profiles were
copied in the models. After models were approved, they
were air-freighted to either Italy or Canada to be used by
their fabricators."
According to Becker, 3D scanning and digitizing was

COMMERCI A L A RCHI T EC T URE

SEPTEMBER 2017

commercialarchitecturemagazine.com

Want more information? To download the information listed below,
visit commercialarchitecturemagazine.com/1709stone.

The Natural Stone Institute (MIA
& BSI)

Glossary of stone industry terms
Varieties of stone

Building Stone magazine

http://www.commercialarchitecturemagazine.com/1709stone http://www.commercialarchitecturemagazine.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Commercial Architecture September 2017