A Beautiful Project

Glendale Galleria Project

Location: Glendale Galleria, Glendale, CA

Installer: Premier Tile & Marble, Gardena, CA 

Executive Architect: ELS Architecture & Urban Design, Berkeley, CA
Design Firm: Kevin Kennon Architect, NYC

General contractor: VCC Construction, Irvine, CA

LATICRETE distributor: Daltile City of Industry, CA

There are always challenges to renovating existing tile structures, but when the project is also constricted by a small window of opportunity, being able to source highperforming building materials from a single supplier can be critical. That was the task presented to Andrew Games, Vice President of Premier Tile and Marble, when he began work on the Glendale Galleria renovation project, in Glendale, Calif., in 2013. The job called for the tiling of 27,871 square metres of the mall’s interior flooring and wall spaces which included corridors, restrooms and food court. In addition, an 743.22 metres exterior living wall was tiled along with areas of exterior paving. 

“During renovation, Glendale Galleria remained open for business. All work performed during each shift had to be finished, clean and ready prior to the mall opening,” explained Mr. “Games. Since Glendale Galleria's tenants must be ready for business by 9 a.m., we only had a very small window of time to perform our work. That window was from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m.

With this challenge in hand, Games set out to line up his team of suppliers. The majority of the tile was being supplied by Daltile. “We worked with John Christy of Daltile from start to finish in regards to getting the proper tile specified. We also worked closely with the VCC Construction team and General Growth Properties, the owner of Glendale Galleria, to make sure we were all on the same page, working towards getting a high quality finished product within the time constraints that were required,” said Games. 

Once the 300x600mm porcelain tiles were ordered, it was time to find a single supplier that could not only deliver the necessary ancillaries, but deliver exceptional service, especially under the job’s tight time constraints. Mr. Games chose LATICRETE. He explained, “We are very familiar with LATICRETE® products and they have always performed very well under stringent conditions. Just as important was the excellent support we received from LATICRETE sales representative Eddie Obymako. Any time we had a question or an issue that came up, he was on site within hours, day or night.” 

Glendale Galleria's intricate stairs were manufactured by Wausau. Crossville/Longust supplied porcelain stainless steel brushed tile for the elevator walls. LATICRETE 254 Platinum, a high performance, polymer fortified thin-set mortar, was utilised to adhere to the stainless steel tile on the elevator walls, which was subject to constant movement from the elevator usage. 

For the main concourse area, Mr. Games chose the LATICRETE 253R Gold Rapid a fast-setting, polymer-fortified thin-set for installing ceramic tile, pavers, brick and stone. This flexible mortar is a fast-setting, polymer-fortified thin-set that is ideal for installing ceramic tile, pavers, brick and stone. The advantages of 253R Gold Rapid include being ready for grouting in 2 to 4 hours at 21 °C. The mortar has a tenacious bond to concrete and masonry and mixes with water. It also meets ANSI A118.4 and ANSI A118.11 standards.

Click here to continue reading this project spotlight.