Passings: Carlo Mariotti

Carlo Mariotti, 76, owner of a firm that quarried and fabricated travertine for famous buildings worldwide, died Aug. 5 of cancer in a Rome hospital. He joined his family’s stone company in 1946; he expanded its reach to a number of high-profile projects in the United States, including New York’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the Sears Tower in Chicago, the Getty Center in Los Angeles, the Bank of China headquarters in Bejing, and the Ronald Reagan Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Santa Ana, Calif. (which won an award of excellence in the 2001 Pinnacle Awards from the Marble Institute of America).
The owner of Carlo Mariotti e Figli s.r.l. and self-professed “Marble Man” also recently received Italy’s Cavaliere del Lavoro honor bestowed to top businesspeople by the Italian government.
Mariotti’s final work in the United States is likely the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Westwood, Calif., scheduled to open next year. Mariotti underwent two live-saving treatments at the current UCLA medical facilities; for the new building, he arranged the sale of 15,000 travertine panels for cladding the structure at cost. He then personally donated $1 million, or approximately half of the value of the stone order, to help purchase the travertine.