Municipal Building, Beachwood, Ohio

   A recent expansion took care of both problems, adding offices and an imposing new entrance, and upgrading the building’s appearance – with a judicious use of natural stone inside and out.
   Tina Turick, assistant to Mayor Merle Gordon, says the needs of this western Cleveland suburb were fairly simple.
   “We just needed some additional space for our administrative offices,” she says. “This is planned to carry us well into the future, and we shouldn’t need any additional renovations for some time.”
   Beachwood already had plenty of experience with renovations. Benny Chew, a principal with Cleveland-based City Architecture, says not only was the Beachwood Municipal Building dated, but several additions made between 1966 and 1992 weren’t necessarily well-thought-out.
   “They’d made numerous additions because of the additional demands on the city,” Chew says. “But, the result was a poor representation of the city, which has some very nice neighborhoods.”
   Fortunately, Chew says, the city also had the money to propose a comprehensive makeover to tie its existing structure into an addition and make it look like one building. However, there were several lengthy steps that needed to be completed before city staffers could start moving into their new spaces in March.
   Chew explains that City Architecture was among several local firms on a short list of architects interviewed for the job. Although the firm does some public work, most of its work is in the private sector.
   Once selected, the firm was then asked to do a master plan for the city’s most-important structure.
   “As architects, it was our responsibility to forecast as best we can what their future needs will be,” Chew explains. “You don’t want to design something and then say it will last for the next five years. We came up with our vision for a 30-year plan, and gave them some direction on what their piece of land is capable of doing.”
   Both Chew and Turick say the location of the municipal building is a real plus. Not only was there parking adjoining the building that could be used for the expansion; eight new tournament-style tennis courts at another location allowed the removal of some old courts at the building site to replace lost parking spaces.
   While coming up with a design that basically doubled the building’s footprint and allowed the city to reorganize its departments into better space, Chew says the structure’s aesthetics were a big concern.
   “That’s also a statement of what we’re trying to do,” says the architect. “It’s a city hall, and city hall is always one of the symbols of stability in a community. We wanted materials that are associated with good durability while being a symbol of modern Beachwood.”
   To do that, Chew turned to a number of materials to work with the concrete panels that make up much of the original structure (and have subsequently been painted a shade of gray). One is zinc panels, which the architect feels give a modern touch.
   To serve as a counterpoint to the metal and concrete, he then turned to natural stone, with the dominant exterior use being a Scottish sandstone called Cove Red.
   Steve Mason, president of Berea, Ohio-based Ohio Natural Stone Inc., which imported the stone from the English company Realstone Ltd., first acted as a consultant on the project.
   “I initially did a lunchbox meeting with the architect, and was showing him some local sandstone from the Berea formation,” Mason explains. “I had samples of the red as well, and that caught his eye.”
   Chew admits he likes the idea of a red sandstone (“Red is the color of choice, based on aesthetic values,” he says.) but he wasn’t initially sold on the Scottish product. An Indian red he’d seen in Los Angeles was a personal favorite. However, after gathering test data on the two products, the Indian didn’t make the cut.
   “The Indian couldn’t stand the freeze-thaw cycle in Cleveland, which would have been a real liability,” says Chew. “We looked at things like water absorption, freeze-thaw cycles and acid resistance, and the Scottish sandstone was definitely superior.”
   In the end, Mason presented three Realstone sandstones with similar characteristics, and the decision was made to go with the Cove Red – the reddest of the bunch.
   Mason says his company tends to do a lot of institutional work, and his relationship with Chew on this project is typical of the approach he takes with these jobs.
   “We try to work a lot with the architects,” he says. “We belong to the local chapter of the AIA (American Institute of Architects) and we do advertising with them and sponsor events. That certainly helps us, and then we do these lunchbox meetings and help them at the design-and-budget stage, so we get our materials speced from that angle.”
Still, the stone purchase had to go through a bid process, and Mason says he believes the contractor did seek bids from other suppliers before awarding the job to Ohio Natural Stone.
   The actual process of getting the stone from the quarry in Scotland to Ohio went fairly smoothly, Mason says. He estimates the project took about eight weeks of production in Realstone’s U.K.-based fabrication facility, and then another three weeks in shipping.
   “They fabricated the project, but we did the shop drawings and shop tickets,” says Mason. “We brought in about two containers, and I brought in extra slabs. On any job there are things that happen that are unforeseen, so we did some fabrication of replacement materials that were damaged in transport.”
   While the Cove Red is the dominant natural stone on the exterior, the architect also incorporated two types of granite for the exterior. Kevin Macko, a senior project manager with the Macedonia, Ohio-based Acme Arsena Company Inc., says that firm supplied about 500 ft² of Atlantic Black and another 500 ft² of Dakota Mahogany.
   “They were used as a base course around the perimeter of the building and for sill tops on windows,” Macko says. “It was delivered to our facility cut-to-size, to a certain extent, and then we did some finishing in our fabrication facility.”
   The use of the granite around the perimeter does two things, Chew says. The sandstone looks as if it’s floating above the ground; the granite also reduces the possibility of damage to the exterior by putting a more-durable stone at ground level.
   “We also used it on the sill tops because the windows go all the way down, and you can associate the granite from the sill tops with the base,” Chew says.
   To install the exterior stone, general contractor Dunlop and Johnston of Valley City, Ohio, brought in Hudson, Ohio-based Giambrone Construction.
   Both Randy Spencer, a partner in Dunlop and Johnston, and Giambrone’s Dave Giambrone say that while Giambrone’s selection was based on having the low bid, both sides were also comfortable working with the other.
   Giambrone notes that his company actually was awarded a combination bid to do not just the masonry work, but also the interior drywall and acoustical work.
   “We’d also been the general contractor and done the masonry work on the Beachwood Fire Station, which is located across the street, and we were very excited about working with this owner again,” Giambrone says.
   “Largely, Giambrone’s selection was based on hard dollars, but we’d worked with them successfully in the past and we certainly had no reservations about working with them again,” says Spencer.
   Both Spencer and Giambrone say the biggest challenge with the job, from their perspective, was simple coordination.
   “With the different materials that comprise the exterior of the building, it became quite a challenge of coordinating them and their off-site fabrication,” says Spencer. “It was quite a chore on this project, but we really didn’t have any major problems.”
   “This wasn’t a difficult job,” agrees Giambrone. “It just took extra time for all the coordination that was needed.”
   Had Dunlop and Johnston’s responsibilities ended there, it would still have been a complicated project. However, the architect chose to carry natural stone into the interior, which required other subs to supply and install the material.
   Chew chose to make the sandstone a major part of the interior decoration, using it along one wall of the elevator lobby.
   “It’s always nice to accentuate what’s on the outside by bringing it inside,” says the architect. “The person who comes into the building feels like there’s no barrier between the inside and the outside. You feel a seamless transition going in.”
   In this case, the sandstone is applied as a veneer visible from the lobby on both floors. Chew admits he opted to use it along only one wall for aesthetic reasons. By utilizing it along the two-story elevator shaft, it emphasizes the overall composition of the lobby, he says.
   Again, Ohio Natural Stone supplied the material; but, for the interior, Mason explains it’s done with 12” X 12” X 1” tiles.
   In the case of the interior sandstone, Giambrone wasn’t interested in bidding the job because the company really isn’t a tile installer, Dave Giambrone says. Instead, Corcoran Tile and Marble of Brook Park, Ohio handled the job.
    “The people who did the exterior (Giambrone) didn’t include it in their bid, so we just came in and did that part of it,” Taylor says.
   Chew also opted to utilize slate for flooring in some of the public areas in the building, including the lobby, rotunda, hallways and around a fireplace.
   “The slate is another counterpoint to the high-tech look,” he says. “Plus, it’s a durable material, which made it an appropriate choice.”
   To supply and install approximately 5,000 ft² of 12” X 12” tile, Dunlop and Johnston chose Biasella Tile and Marble Co. of Akron, Ohio, which also supplied and installed ceramic tile in some bathrooms.
   Doris Biasella says all the slate utilized was primarily natural cleft from Pennsylvania in green, black and purple. Some of the black was honed.
   “There’s one radius area that took a lot of skill and craftsmanship to put together,” says Biasella. “It was like putting pieces of a puzzle together. It all really looks nice.”
   The final touch of stone came from the Cleveland-based Wood Dimensions, which created and topped the custom cabinetry used in the building, as well as doing custom millwork, case work, plastic laminate, wood paneling and running trim.
   Wood Dimensions’ Grant Schwede explains that countertops of Academy Black granite from Cold Spring Granite Co. were utilized to top transaction shelves and desktops, as well as the dais in the new city-council chambers.
   “That’s a large piece with about a 21’ radius and 37’ along the curve,” Schwede says. “There were also four separate stand-alone pieces in the council chambers that have granite tops. It was a nice job for us.”
   Schwede says his company was responsible for building the cabinets and topping them, but the finished pieces were then installed by T Allen Inc. of Berea, Ohio.
   Both the architect and the client are happy with the project and the way it came together.
   “I think people are definitely impressed with the overall look of their new building,” says City Architecture’s Chew.
   “We’re pretty excited,” says the city’s Turick.

Client: City of Beachwood, Beachwood, Ohio
Architect: City Architecture, Cleveland
General Contractor: Dunlop and Johnston, Valley City, Ohio
Sandstone Supplier: Ohio Natural Stone Inc., Berea, Ohio
Exterior Granite Supplier: Acme Arsena Company Inc., Macedonia, Ohio
Exterior Stone Installer: Giambrone Construction, Hudson, Ohio
Interior Sandstone Installer: Corcoran Tile and Marble, Brook Park, Ohio
Slate Flooring Supplier/Installer: Biasella Tile and Marble Co., Akron, Ohio
Granite Countertop Supplier/Fabricator: Wood Dimensions, Cleveland

 This article first appeared in the July 2005 print edition of Stone Business. ©2005 Western Business Media Inc.