natural material

The United States is one of the world’s richest countries when it comes to geological diversity. But until recently, say stone supplier Joe Nolan, only part of the rainbow of natural stone building materials was being extracted from the ground. That’s changing, he says, as increasing consumer demand is sending designers and builders to vendors in search of creative inspiration – and new or unusual materials, colors and visual textures.

Flat-Out Gorgeous

There's never been much of a tradition in this country when it comes to beautiful stonework, especially when it comes to flat stone surfaces. What you usually see is the same few stone types used over and over again in the same sorts of applications. To see a contrasting heritage, just travel in Europe and some parts of Asia, where you'll see a far greater variety of flat stone used in creative ways to create pathways, walls, decks, patios and a host of architectural features, including pilasters and finials. Of course, the Old World had a long head start on us, but even so, we've been slow in the New World to catch up with the masonry and quarrying trades as they've been practiced abroad for centuries. Fortunately, that's starting to change. My firm, Malibu Stone & Masonry of Malibu, Calif., supplies stone (flat and otherwise) to a host of contractors, landscape architects and designers. What we're seeing is a two-stage process: Professionals are surprised