Earns the NTCA Five-Star Award for Installation Excellence
Lippert Flooring and Tile was honored at Coverings for its spectacular work on The Trade Hotel, An Autograph Collection Hotel by Marriott in Milwaukee, Wis., Lippert earned the NTCA Five-Star Large Commercial Achievement of Excellence award for this project. The award recognizes the team’s critical thinking, innovation, ability to collaborate with industry partners, and perseverance for perfection.
The project, adjacent to Fiserv Forum, home of the Milwaukee Bucks,called for a luxurious design ethos, a highly refined homage to Milwaukee’s industrial heritage. Soaring spaces, wood-plank tile and porcelain tile, Cream City brick, warm colors, and tremendous views of the city artfully integrate the hotel with its location. The result is beautiful, functional, and unique to Milwaukee.
Numerous challenges affected this project. Initially, the hotel needed to accommodate visiting basketball teams, which necessitated the adaptation of two floors specifically for the players. This included modifications such as higher ceilings, doors, and larger showers, resulting in different tile layouts from the other floors. However, these adjustments were minor in comparison to the project delays and difficulties in product sourcing that were encountered.
Lippert was required to find suitable alternatives for 84,000 sq. ft. of tile and Cream City thin brick, a significant challenge given the extensive use of tile as a key element of the project’s design. However, with support of industry partners Louisville Tile, Dal-Tile and Stonepeak, they were able to reduce costs and maintain an aggressive schedule. In addition, MAPEI wrote a 25-year project specific warranty for a single-source installation materials system.
The project started three months late, but was required to finish on time. To achieve that deadline, the Lippert team concurrently worked on 200 guest rooms, back-of-house areas, public spaces, and the restaurant. This included extensive substrate prep for floors where large-format tile was to be installed, as well as significant wall prep and waterproofing needed for showers, due to fitment issues. Crews installed rubber sound isolation mats under the tile in guest rooms, set 2,600 sq. ft. of Cream City brick using a scissors lift 12′ off the ground, and grouted using a baker bag, followed by hand tooling.
Jeff Lippert, Executive Vice President, Lippert Flooring and Tile stated it best, “I’m very inspired by how our entire team, including our vendors, collaborated to overcome the many challenges on The Trade Hotel project. We consider it a great honor to receive the NTCA Five-Star Contractor Large Commercial Achievement of Excellence Award in recognition of that tremendous teamwork.”
With a team of up to 18 tile craftspeople working for more than 35 weeks, Lippert successfully completed the project on time and under budget, delivering a functional and unique hotel in Milwaukee. The NTCA Five-Star Commercial Achievement of Excellence awarded to Lippert Flooring and Tile is a testament to the company’s ability to overcome challenges.
