James Museum, Florida: In the name of Sandstone

A piece of art created by nature and one of the oldest building materials in the world, natural stone conveys intimacy into your home, underlining even the most tedious public decoration projects. Natural stone is an amazing material due to its unique durability combined with extended lifetime and is mainly represented by marble, travertine, or granite.

photo source: wjarc.com

One of the newly built museums, the James Museum of Western and Wildlife Art in St. Petersburg, Florida is the ideal example of sandstone with a honed finish used for public projects as an artwork. Emerged from the passion of its two founders– Thomas and Mary James – for art and southern Florida landscapes, the James Museum has an area of approximately 7800 sqm downtown St. Petersburg and was opened in August 2018.

photo source: wjarc.com

Thomas James, an American billionaire, a Harvard graduate, and the president of Raymond James Financial opened the museum to display his over 2 500 artworks collection (American art – Howard Terpning, a painter famous for his oil portraits depicting American Indians). Since natural stone was a special requirement for this project from the founders, sandstone qualified as the perfect fit. In terms of figures, we have 4406 sandstone tiles, 2-5 cm thickness, brought to life by St. Pete Design Group (a joint venture of Wannemacher Jensen Architects, Harvard Jolly Architecture, and Yann Weymouth).

photo source: wjarc.com

The result is a museum that restores the image of US southwest deserts thanks to sandstone, a faithful replica of the shades and color variations specific to canyons and ravines from Arizona, Nevada, or Utah. The world’s top exporter of sandstone – India – delivered the material for this project through Tab India, from its Jaipur quarry.

photo source: wjarc.com

This is an architecture that handles even the minor details, starting with the careful selection of sandstone tiles. The concept of James Museum relies on the unique landscapes from the United States brought closer to the people’s hearts. With the option of serving as a premium location for many events (weddings, receptions, etc.), the James Museum features 3 unique spaces (Arroyo, Messa, and Canyon) that highlight sandstone, if needed, beyond the other design elements. In terms of the finishing options, we have, polished, sandblasted, and honed. However, the last one was preferred because this is more relevant, and besides, it has better looks and is protected against scratching.

Always #generatinginspiration, PIATRAONLINE product range includes a wide range of sandstone. Visit our website and get in touch with our sales department by phone at +40.318.222.333 or by email at export@piatraonline.com