This is the latest addition to the collection of 5-stars properties Shangri-La group owns in the Philippines. They have a long and successful history in that country.
This property interior design and supervision was contracted to HBA (USA), and the designer in charge was one of their most senior team members with very high expectations and strict quality standards.
We were contracted to supply the material for the ground floor public areas, which was Calacatta from Italy.
This time we had to arrange two serviced visits to Italy by the client. The first was for the contractor who was mandated by the client to visit Carrara, Italy and explore the availability and cost of Calacatta. The second trip was with the designer who came to evaluate a mock-up we had prepared of the range of Calacatta available from the quarry at that point of time.
It was a tough day with the designer. On one hand they wanted perfect selection, on the other hand we were bound by nature’s limitations at the quarry. This is always a challenge, because at any given point of time, the position in the quarry where production is ongoing dictates to us the selection and quality of material available. And this can be very different depending on when the project is expected to start and what sort of delivery schedule it requires.
Luckily, we were able to find a balance, the day concluded positively, and so did the project in Manila!
