Video Tours of 2000 Tower Oaks Blvd.

The 2000 Tower Oaks Blvd. Office building is the first LEED© Platinum new construction office building in the Washington, D.C. region.  In the design and construction of Tower Oaks, the developer (The Tower Companies) took sustainability to a whole new level.  Not only is the building physically healthy, but the interior design and architecture possess intangible spatial qualities that inspire occupants.  Built according to the principles of Vedic architecture ("the architecture of nature"), the building was considered in an emotional and spiritual manner with regards to harmony, proportion, and orientation.  The user experience was paramount, with spaces designed to nourish creativity and intelligence.  Check out the backlit honey onyx feature wall that GPI engineered and installed in the Tower Oaks lobby.

Jeffrey Abramson and Marnie Abramson of The Tower Companies, a development company with strong focus on green building, discuss the challenges undertaken in the Tower Oaks project.



NBC interview with Jeffrey Abramson discussing Vedic architecture as it applies to the Tower Oaks project.

Do you use Vedic architecture principles in your building designs?  What is the relationship between the sustainability of a building/space and the emotional and physical health of its occupants? What design elements are necessary in order to push a building from being environmentally sustainable to emotionally sustainable? 

With precise attention to book-matching, designing with natural stone can result in striking compositions.

Are you familiar with the old adage “measure twice, cut once”? To obtain perfect veining patterns in our stone feature walls, at GPI it’s more like “measure twice. draw a diagram. step back and think about it. call the design department. then cut”.

(Photograph courtesy danielpermanetter via Flickr Creative Commons)

Book-matching is a reflection of stone veining patterns across a joint so that adjacent panels appear as “mirror images”. Think of an open book: the left page is one panel, the right page is another, and the spine of the book is the joint. Book-match patterns are most commonly found in wood veneers, but the same principles apply to dimensional stone and stone veneer as well. Other variations of matching patterns include: blend match, slip match, and diamond match.

The quality of book-matching can make or break that uninterrupted wall of backlit stone that you have envisioned. Disregard the continuity between panels, and you risk having skewed veining patterns that appear to shift and jump as they move across joints. This uncontrolled use of natural stone gives the appearance of a defect or installation error, so care must be taken in the manufacturing and installation process to ensure quality control. Many natural stone panels are pre-fabricated and cut to size, making on-site adjustments costly and time-consuming.

(Above image: Book match/diamond match seams at GPI's Signature Place project)

Because stone possesses movement and graining sculpted by natural processes, each slab is unique. The visual prominence of bookmatching depends on the veining characteristics and color variations of that particular stone in use. The sharp red veins of a stark white onyx are emphasized by precise mirroring (see above photograph), while a more uniformly colored stone surface will have less pronounced book-matching.

To ensure quality book matching, care must be taken when choosing a stone manufacturer. Fluid communication between the sales, design and manufacturing departments is truly the only way to ensure attention to detail. A responsible stone company will have the insight, experience, and quality control standards to achieve those tight seams. Unfortunately, with many typical stone manufacturers, pertinent information is lost as a project moves from stone tickets into production. Make sure to detail your stone wall elevations and call out the particular seams which should be book matched. You've gone to painstaking measures to detail your prominent stone feature, so take a few minutes to ensure that you nail the details.

Part 2 of our photo update from the construction site at the Wells Fargo Center in Norfolk, Virginia. We manufactured, engineered, and installed the backlit onyx feature wall system and four-sided column wraps in the main lobby.  All of the prep work and structural steel has been completed and we are now hanging our FLAT-Lite™ LED panels and translucent stone DURA-Lite™ onyx panels.   We're about 90% done!


Three of the lobby columns with LED panels only and one completed with the mercury onyx surface.

Three of the lobby columns with LED panels only and one completed with the mercury onyx surface.

Column 3 with tight quirk mitered corners and precise book matching.

Reception desk feature wall with backlit Mercury onyx.

Tight seams and book matching to turn the corner on the backlit lobby feature wall.

A view from around the corner, showing the feature wall return and 3 of the 4 columns.

While the space itself is unfinished, our stone is finally lit up and providing an extremely dramatic effect to the space.  The stone surfaces have the appearance of candlelight or flames.  When the adjacent dark wooden millwork is installed, the stone will pop against the dark wood surface even more.  Stay tuned for a final wrap-up post regarding this project.

A photo update of our installation progress on-site in Norfolk, Virginia (see the Wells Fargo project rendering for the final vision). Most of the steel has been installed and a few FLAT-Lite™ LED panels were tested.  Everything fit together perfectly and it looks like the columns will be installed tomorrow.


The reception wall (above) had some framing adjustments, which pushed back the column installation.  Steel and LED panels for reception wall will be going up today, translucent stone panels tomorrow.


All of the DURA-Lite™ panels are prepped, mechanical fasteners are aligned and secured, ready for installation.


Framing out the square lobby columns (above) in preparation for hanging our stone panels. 


All of Terry's precise work and attention to detail in the framing systems and it's soon going to be covered up with the stunning Mercury onyx panels! Check back soon for even more progress on the finish surfaces and lighting systems.

2. The orange Mercury onyx that the designers chose for this project is pretty unique (see below photograph of the unlit stone) and is sure to look gorgeous all lit up.  Can’t wait to get those stone photos up on the website!

3. All of the corners are meticulously quirk mitered and have been detailed down the the millimeter, so the vertical reveals are a clean architectural detail.

4. The tolerances on our products are pretty low, so the size of all the stone panels, LED panels, trims, and fasteners have also been detailed down to the mm before production.

5. We’ve gone to great lengths to make sure the book matched  seams are perfect.  So we’ve been harping on our stone guys to make the perfect cuts and account for stone waste.

6. Every single component will arrive on site at the same time; stone, LED panels, wiring, all of our tools, our crews, even stainless steel trims.  That’s a whole lot of coordination!

7. This marks the second large commercial job which will be using our NEWLY engineered increased capacity FLAT-Lite™ power supplies with integrated dimming capability.  So full dimming control can be achieved through the Lutron BMS, and can be set for each individual interior lighting scene!

After months of coordinating between the general contractor, electrical subcontractor, millwork subs, and owner to make sure everything goes smoothly, tomorrow the ball drops – check in daily for updates on the construction process.

Thanks to all those who behaved themselves on St. Patrick’s day to prepare for the trip to Norfolk!

View the Wells Fargo Center project rendering

 “the solar-heating functions of a building were essentially a replacement of the original thermal functions of the fireplace.  With its circle of warmth, the fireplace had once been the center of family life… what were the qualities of the hearth that made it so wonderful and so beloved?” – Thermal Delight in Architecture by Lisa Heschong

Honey onyx is probably the most common natural stone that’s specified into our projects. And while we’re always open to utilizing our more exotic shades of onyx or agglomerate stone, there’s definitely a reason why honey onyx is so popular as an interior material.  Honey onyx, particularly when backlit, emits a warm glow reminiscent of candlelight or a hearth.  Is it the appearance of the stone surface itself, the manner in which it refracts light, or some element in our collective unconscious that makes the warm-colored stone evoke deep-rooted emotion?

Psychologist Carl Jung outlined several archetypes, common representations of qualitative images that transcend culture and space.  While a central fireplace or hearth is not one of them, it is that exact collective unconscious that allows the concepts to appeal to designers, homeowners, building owners, and users of space.

Many interiors employ honey onyx walls for central spaces.  In the Tower Oaks high-rise office project, the freestanding honey onyx feature wall stands in the heart of the lobby as a main visual feature. 

 But the wall does not flicker like candlelight or emit heat like a fireplace.  The building HVAC itself tempers the thermal environment, while the wall is merely a visual representation of that physical and comforting warmth.  Why do we rely on advanced technological processes to replicate something as primitive as fire or candlelight?  With advanced materials and technology, are we at risk of eliminating the hearth altogether?  

Such icons as the fireplace are derived from regional climates and the way in which buildings adapt to them, so I’d be interested to hear from designers in other areas of the world on how their material selections are driven by regionalism and thermal considerations.  What do you think?

Think Beinecke Library at Yale University by Gordon Bunshaft of SOM: set architectural precedent by exploiting the possibilities of translucent natural stone.

Translucent stone products possess unique depth and character. In addition to lit bartops and interior feature walls, backlit natural stone can be used in a variety of commercial interior and exterior applications. Whether translucent stone is already a part of your standard design palette or you’re just beginning to explore its capabilities, consider the following design ideas: