Exploring Large Aggregate Terrazzo
533 W. 57th St.
Photo courtesy of David Laudadio
At the newly renovated 533 W. 57th St. in Manhattan, a Palladiana terrazzo floor in an epoxy 3/8-inch system lends an upscale, seamless look to this office building.
At the newly renovated 533 W. 57th St., a Palladiana terrazzo floor lends an upscale, seamless look to this Manhattan office building. A 2021 NTMA Honor Award winner, the project was recognized for its outstanding quality based on terrazzo aesthetics, scope, and workmanship. The textured, monochromatic Palladiana terrazzo installation is an epoxy thin-set, 3/8-inch system. Designed by architect Mdeas, the Palladiana lobby floors, staircase, and elevator cabs are made from shards of the same French Blue de Savoie marble that clads the walls.
For the flooring installation, the terrazzo contractor set the stones in a rhythmic composition spaced a half inch apart. Each marble slab, approximately 2 inches, was hand-fractured and hand-placed, the broadest side set at the surface. To ensure consistency in the pattern, this meticulous task was carried out by a single installer. The existing staircase—treads, nosing, and a recessed riser—was overlaid in precast segments using the same Palladiana terrazzo as the floor. Once adhered to the substrate and polished, the precast sections’ joints are undetectable, producing the appearance of a single element. The surfaces of the marble shards are revealed taking the turn of the nosing on the perfectly detailed steps. The steps are finished with 1/8-inch brass strips for slip resistance.
Sarona’s Market, Tel Aviv
Photo courtesy of Sarona Market (left); C.R. Contech (right)
White and grey Palladiana squares with a white matrix are framed in rows of black stones, creating mosaic-style floors for Tel Aviv’s Sarona market in Israel.
As Israel’s largest indoor food market, Sarona Market houses a few dozen eateries alongside tens of vendors offering up spices, oils, spreads, wine, coffee, tea, fish, cheeses, and meats, both locally and from around the world. Lending an upscale look and continuity to this popular indoor-outdoor venue is expansive Palladiana flooring.
The designer, Studio Mu, selected the larger Palladiana stones to create the mosaic style they were seeking for the market, explains Gilad Naftaly, CEO of the Tel Aviv-based terrazzo contractor C.R. Contech, who installed 2,000+ square meters of terrazzo. Acting in a design-assist capacity, Naftaly’s teamed helped the designers locate the right stones in addition to assisting with the concrete, layers, substrate, and spacing of the joints. The resulting pattern is a matrix of white and grey squares framed in two rows of squared black stones. “The luxurious-looking stone carpet is customized and spectacular,” he reports.
Essex Crossing
Photo courtesy of John Latin
SOM selected waterjet-cut Suzuko white marble in an alternating pattern of rectangles and squares for the Essex Crossing lobby on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
Another recent Palladiana project is Essex Crossing, a 1.65-million-square-foot mixed-use development on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. An elegant, minimalist commercial lobby features precision-cut Palladiana stones. For the 19-story affordable housing tower with retail spaces, SOM specified waterjet-cut Suzuko white marble in alternating patterns of rectangles and squares, which were machine-attached to a mesh for layout. Microaggregate epoxy fills the 1-inch spacing.
The machine-fabricated mesh backing with the marble pieces attached saved on labor costs, according to Evan Tarabocchia, Imperial Flooring Systems, Freehold, N.J. While the mesh installation with the marble pieces took two to three days, Tarabocchia estimates it would have taken twice as long to lay them out by hand. The mesh also offered the advantage of controlling the spacing of the marble pieces. In order to ensure an even finish after grinding, the epoxy had to be poured higher than the prepolished marble inserts.
Barbara Horwitz-Bennett is a veteran architectural journalist who has written hundreds of CEUs and articles for various AEC publications. BHBennett.com