MPA 360 Specs Laminam by Crossville and D&B Tile for Expansive Lobby in Bank of America on Las Olas Blvd.
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e sat down with Michael Allen, President of MPA 360 to discuss his selection of Crossville thin gauged porcelain panels by Laminam for the lobby in the Bank of America building on Las Olas. “We had two requirements on the product. First it had to be a larger scale. Seondly, it had to be able to go over the existing flooring. “We were looking for something with a wide variety of colors. There are six different image faces in the run, so that works for us. When we mixed them up, it gave us the results we wanted. I have known and worked with D&B for a very long time and I normally visit the Sumrise location.
“Timing was important with this project. When you add in the demolition phase, it can be extensive especially when you are maintaining operations. You can imagine traffic through here at various times of the day. Any demolition wouild have to be done during non-working hours. Demolition costs are significant and that phase extends the timeline, which is also costly. Not to mention the demolition costs. All just went away on this project using Laminam.
“Because our subsurface was a pre-existing granite, it made it micro flat. We had several meetings with Crossville representatives and they said it just didn’t get any better. One of the pleasant surprises with the Laminam was discovered early on. We were prepared to do a ramping at the elevators but the installers were able to just run it up to the threshold. No ramping.
“We’re also impressed with the contiguous nature of the tile. We’re working on a project right now with two 30-foot walls in a lobby and we’re looking to do a different eclectic look with geometric stacking.
“The tile contractor did a nice job. It “Actually, I wasn’t aware of Laminam by Crossville. I was was O’Neill Brothers Flooring out of doing research on the large format porcelain and found it. We West Palm Beach. They went so fast. considered other similar products and weighed out each one. Part of it was just the scale of the prodWe considered product availability, timing, finish and selecuct and working with the granite floors. tion capability. We switched out mood boards and sample They were laying down almost 10 feet boards over to Laminam. with one tile. The setting materials on this job were from Mapei. O’Neill attended Mapei and Crossville’s workshop to further advance their large format installation skills.
“More than 7,000 sq/ft of Bianco Laminam Cava Series 5.6 mm tile was used. The color was Lasa polished porcelain. Panel size was 1m x 3m x 5.6mm. “We just started our 33rd year in downtown Ft. Lauderdale. I started my career here and started my company in 1988. We specialize in corporate business occupancy and work mostly with ownership. We service the tri-county area. I consider us a small, boutique firm. We have more than 40 buildings with ownership worldwide. We keep a low profile but have some direct work. At the moment, we are doing work for Fox Sports and other Fortune 500 companies.” MPA 360 is a full service firm for corporate design, working with Ownerships, Asset Managers, Property Managers, both Tenant & Owner Rep Brokers. They specialize in: • Corporate and Business Design for corporate offices and Business Occupancies. • Space Planning across multiple business platforms. • Building master planning for Brokers, Ownership & Asset Management. • Custom design for Corporations, Capital Expenditures. As the first tile manufacturer in Tennessee (est. 1986), Crossville is the leading American manufacturer of beautiful, sustainable solutions that advance the frontiers of tile design. A Curran Group company, Crossville is part of a fami-
ly-owned, privately held corporation dedicated to building on the values of family, partnership, integrity, improvement and respect. To see these and many other selections of tile, marble and stone, visit any of D&B Tile’s nine convenient locations throughout South Florida. Remember that the first step to beautiful design is stepping into D&B Tile.