Bank of America Plaza at Las Olas City Centre

Introduction

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Historically, Fort Lauderdale has been a secondary business market to Miami, but in the last decade, businesses have jumped at the chance to call Fort Lauderdale home. Thanks to the area’s comparative affordability and plentiful workforce, businesses are making the shift. As a result, the Fort Lauderdale residential market is exploding. In the last few years, more than 1,000 dining, shopping, and retail establishments have opened, many in the Las Olas Boulevard area.

The  Story

To answer this surge of growth, the property owners of the Bank of America Plaza at Las Olas City Centre planned a renovation to the tower lobby. The update ensured modern amenities for tenants and visitors. Offering a financial center and ATM on the ground floor, the Plaza lobby sees high traffic for personal- and business-related transactions. Built in 2002, the property encompasses over 408,000 square feet in the 23-story tower. Aside from Bank of America, some of the other tenants include Greenberg Traurig, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Patriot National Insurance. When working on the lobby renovation plan, keeping disruptions to a minimum for all tenants was a priority.

Michael Allen, president of MPA 360, worked closely with D&B Tile Distributors in the selection of Crossville Porcelain Tile Panels by Laminam for the lobby in the Bank of America Plaza.

“We had two requirements on the product. First, it had to be a larger scale. Second, it had to be able to go over the existing flooring,” explained Allen. “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 the lobby at various times of the day.”

The subsurface throughout the lobby was pre-existing granite which made the surface micro flat, ideal for tile-over-tile installation. Any demolition would have to be done during non-working hours, and demolition costs become significant by extending timelines. With Crossville’s gauged porcelain tile panels, there was essentially no demolition needed. One of the concern areas regarding the tile-over-tile installation was the transitions to the elevators, but the installers were able to run the tile panels flush up to the threshold with no ramping needed.

Although the tile-over-tile installation was a specification requirement, color and style were also important in the design selection. The design team chose Crossville’s Cava collection in Lasa polished format as they were looking for something with a wide variety of colors. With the appearance of natural stone, Cava offered a supersized stone look with the unsurpassed performance of porcelain tile. More than 7,000 square feet of Cava in the 5.6mm size was installed, and the large format tile panels have six different image faces so the tile installer was able to mix them up providing a stellar result throughout the lobby.

Crossville’s porcelain tile panels provided a great solution for covering existing, well-adhered floor tiles. Beyond the advantages of the tile-over-tile installation and look of the tile’s contemporary style, the Cava collection offers the building owner even more positives. It provides exceptional strength and performance, as well as ease of maintenance—essential characteristics for surfacing materials that must last and look great doing so in such a busy, high traffic environment.