Page 30 - Demo

30|September 2019 Phenix Rising
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Although Conco had little ex- perience in this type of mining, it saw the historical value and over- all potential of Phenix Marble, and the Phenix/Conco relationship was born. Conco brought Phenix Marble opportunities through a larger-scale mining process that they could not accomplish by themselves at the time, enabling such projects as the Missouri State Capital.
The Green County, Missouri- based company of Phenix Marble offers two different cut options of marble: the historic Napoleon Gray, and Fleuri. Both are gray in color and are offered in three finishes: polished, honed or leath- ered, upon request. Both ma- terials are used in the Missouri State Capital and have their own distinctive color and variation. Napoleon Gray is dependably directional, with veining flow- ing characteristically long ways across the slabs. In fact, this dis- tinctive veining is one way to identity Napoleon Grey.
and Steel maintains seems to be a perfect fit for Phenix Stone and the restoration of the capitol building. The process within Galassi starts with original, removed carved pieces being sent to a lead Carver, who duplicates the original piece. It is three-dimensionally scanned, processed and converted into a CNC program that boasts less than 0.1mm error over the entire piece, so the carved piece can be uniformly mass produced. The pieces are roughed out by their Breton 5-axis CNC and then fin- ished by one of their very skilled carvers.
To keep projects moving and quality high, Gary Galassi Stone & Steel sends most pieces directly into fabrication after producing a purchase ticket, to ensure the best possible fabrication path for restoration projects. Once every- one involved, from draftsman to carvers, completes their portion of the fabrication, a note on qual- ity is then presented to the Plant Managers to move each piece to the next step. This is to ensure that these pieces will meet the expec- tations of the customers – in the case of the capitol restoration, the customer is the state. According to
Slippery rock Gazette
Chris Galassi, Vice President and General Manager of Gary Galassi Stone & Steel, the strictest level of quality control is meeting their own shop’s standards.
After fabrication is done by Galassi, the material is then shipped directly to the State Capital to be installed by an- other Illinois company, Bulley & Andrews Masonry Restoration Company (BAMR). Galassi and BAMR have been working to- gether for about 15 years and have completed many high profile jobs in the U.S.. “Very good team communication between both our parties on this job and others in the past are what have made us so successful in jobs such as Missouri State Capital,” says Chris Galassi.
Phenix Marble also has their marble in the Oklahoma City Streetcar Building where they matched historical Phenix Marble on the exterior of the Oklahoma City Union Station. Phenix stone also graces the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art and the Pickwick Plaza, both located in Kansas City, Missouri. They have also com- pleted several projects for univer- sities including Dartmouth in New Hampshire, and closer to home, the Missouri State University, as well as establishments and res- idences throughout Missouri. If you do not know who Phenix Marble is and you are living in Missouri, there is a good chance you have already encountered this beautiful Missouri-mined mar- ble, and not realized it is “home grown”.
For more historical Information, visit or contact the Cole County Historical Society, 109 Madison Street, Jefferson City, MO, 65101; Phone: (573) 635-1850. For a unique tour of the Missouri State capital grounds, visit capitol. mo.gov/who-we-are/ Digital Tour.
Fossil shells in Phenix Fleuri
are random and unique. Below: Shipping a load of pre-cut slabs by flatbed. Photos (2) by Brandon Roberts
complex pieces such as the pavers and stairs. For the more detailed pieces that demand precision ma- chinery and programming, Phenix Marble ships slabs by truck load to a fabricator, where the slabs get cut to various sizes based on what section is being worked on. Mary Neely, Phenix marble Director of Marketing, credited their suc- cess to their fabrication partners. “We’re fortunate to have good re- lationships with shops around the country, which really expands our capabilities.”
However, each Fleuri slab is also distinctive, with many differ- ent natural variations, and unlike vein cut Napoleon, Phenix Fleuri is known to show unique features like fossils and starfish in the face of the stone. There is actually a map In the state capitol building to guide you to all the unique fos- sils located in the stone around the building!
Phenix Marble does not fab- ricate all of the material for the State Capital, due to some of the intricate and complex stone work, which requires special- ized machinery. Phenix Marble does directly fabricate the less
Located only one state over, one key fabrication partner is Gary Galassi Stone & Steel, located in Romeoville, Illinois. To date, Gary Galassi Stone & Steel has received approximately 167 slabs of Phenix Marble for the Jefferson City capitol project, or roughly 6,800 square feet. The company was founded and is owned by Gary Galassi, who brought the Missouri capitol job to the company, and is responsible for most of the job verification orders today.
The pieces destined for the capi- tal’s exterior renovation are exqui- site. The procedure as well as the quality that Gary Galassi Stone
Left (3): Processing a cubic block starts with roughing out the shape with a Breton 5-Axis CNC. Then, the workpiece gets finished by hand by one of the talented Galassi stone carvers. Below: replacement flower; the original, worn ornament is at bottom right.
Photo by Brandon Roberts