William J. Clinton Library, Little Rock, Ark.

   Those involved, from the architects on down, say the project was one of the most satisfying of their careers, despite a demanding schedule that gave no leeway from the Nov. 18, 2004, dedication.
   Incorporating stone into the structure, though, ended up as a challenge coming from the building’s namesake. Just how do you work natural stone into a project where the client warns against designing a “dusty and dark stone monument,” and also meet his desire to meet environmentally “green” standards?
   A privately designed, built and endowed structure, a presidential library must meet standards set by a number of local, state and federal agencies, including the National Archives and Records Administration, which ultimately manages it. Once completed, the library is gifted to the American public (subject to acceptance by the U.S. Congress).
   Planning for a presidential library typically begins early in the second term of a U.S. president, and the Clinton library was no exception. While the William J. Clinton Foundation started raising the additional funds for what ultimately became a $165 million structure, the process of selecting a location for the library also began.
   Jordan Johnson, the library’s public spokesman, explains that several communities with significance to the former president sought to become its home, including Fayetteville, North Little Rock and Hope, Ark., as well as Georgetown, Md.
   After working with a different architect, Clinton and his family settled on Little Rock and, specifically, a 30-acre site near the Arkansas River.
   “The city acquired the land and deeded part of it to the Clinton Foundation,” says Johnson. “The remaining part serves as a city park. One of the requirements of cities trying to land the Clinton Center was that they had to provide the land.”
   To design the project, the Clintons then turned to the New York-based Polshek Partnership Architects.
   The firm specializes in not-for-profits, cultural institutions and colleges and universities. Kevin McClurkan, an associate partner at Polshek and the library’s project manager, says Clinton attended the dedication of the National Inventors Hall of Fame™ building in Akron, Ohio, which Polshek Partnership designed, and was also familiar with an art museum at Stanford University, the alma mater of the Clintons’ daughter, Chelsea.
   “He knew a little about us without knowing us,” says McClurkan. “We were asked to send our portfolio. Then, we were invited to come to the White House to meet with the president and talk with him. A few months later we were selected.”
   Along with its very clear-cut mission, the architects and client had several goals for the project. One was to “bootstrap,” as McClurkan puts it, the rundown industrial area where library is situated, bringing it back to life and serving as a catalyst for more economic development in downtown Little Rock.
   “Clinton also wanted the building to reflect some of the ideals he felt strongly about as the president,” he says. “Most importantly, he didn’t want it to be a dusty, dark stone monument of an archive. He wanted the building to express openness and an intellectual accessibility.”
   Recognizing that the building could take a large chunk out of the intended park, McClurkan says the architects decided to reflect the six bridges that cross the Arkansas River at Little Rock, and particularly an abandoned railroad bridge that’s a community landmark.
   “We opted to elevate the museum building, letting the park flow underneath,” he explains. “The archive is a fairly massive element on the ground, but the museum is a glassy piece in the air.”
   While stone isn’t usually described as airy, McClurkan says Polshek Partnership has a predilection toward using stone, glass and wood, and its projects almost always start out with a stone element.
   “We think buildings built in the public realm should be at least 50-100-year buildings and have to be substantial,” the architect says. “Stone is a material that will stand the test of time and handles the wear incurred in the public realm. We’ve learned a lot from fine public buildings from the last several hundred years and most of them incorporate stone.”
   However, the architects did face a major constraint on their choices of stone. President Clinton was adamant that the library attain certification under the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System®.
   Consequently, the stone for the project had to be quarried and fabricated within a 500-mile radius of Little Rock.
   “One of the fellows in our office did an enormous amount of research looking for a gray and a black stone that were fairly homogenous in finish and didn’t have a lot of veining,” McClurkan explains.
   Ultimately, the designers specified a combination of Aday limestone for interior and exterior walls, Imperial Black marble for the flooring and Andies Gray marble for the trim on the exterior walls and banding in the floors.
   However, getting the stones provided its own challenges.
   Lucia Inc. of Houston served as the stone subcontractor for the project; the library’s general contractor, Little Rock-based CDI Contractors LLC, took bids from several major stone subs before choosing Lucia.
   Clay Bruce, Lucia’s senior project manager for the Clinton Library, explains that his firm typically works on large projects of all types. The company also does brick and block work, but for this job it handled only the stone portion.
   He adds that Tennessee Valley Marble, the Friendsville, Tenn.-based quarrier and fabricator who supplied the stone for the job, “kind of pulled us out of a hole on this project.”
   The reason: Aday limestone hadn’t been quarried for more than a decade, and the quarry owners claimed there weren’t enough blocks available to do the exterior and interior walls.
   However, Tennessee Valley had access to a large number of blocks that had been cut and stored off-site before the quarry closed, and those became the source for the Aday limestone used on the job.
   “It was an ace in the hole,” says Bruce. “The architects really wanted that stone and we were able to give them what the client wanted. Aday isn’t that unique a stone, but it’s just not quarried anymore.”
   “We worked closely with Lucia in terms of getting the stone,” says McClurkan.
   Tom White, Tennessee Valley’s president, describes the stone as, “a soft and warm limestone with a creamy yellow cast that was fleuri cut, then honed.”
   The other two stones were much easier to come by. The Andies Gray is quarried near Tennessee Valley’s 20,000 ft² shop, while the Imperial Black has been used in a range of projects dating back almost a century.
   “The Imperial Black is a dark, warm black with white and gold veins that was used for interior and exterior floors,” says White. “The Andies Gray is a soft gray with pink highlights and blue veining. It was used as highlights such as capstones around the outside on the walls and as a border for the flooring. It was also used on some tabletops in the food-service area and for some paving of the exterior, but that was separate from the main contract.”
   While Bruce agrees that the Imperial Black is a nice color, he says it can also be rangy.
   “It will go from almost a spider-web gray to almost solid black,” he says. “To maintain a tight-enough range that the architect was comfortable with was the biggest challenge on the black.”
   To resolve the issue, Lucia and the architects went to the Tennessee plant and laid out approximately 30 slabs, then narrowed the acceptable ones down to ten. They were then used as a control as blocks were brought in and the supplier started fabricating.
   Ground was broken for the library on Dec. 5, 2001, leaving a little less than three years to complete the project; actual construction took about two years. That time frame also proved to be a challenge, particularly for Lucia.
   Danny Bennett, vice president for CDI, says the company more typically does commercial work, although as a private contract he didn’t consider this a typical government job.
   “Our opening day was set well in advance of the start of construction,” he says. “It didn’t really matter what happened during construction. It had to be opened on time and we don’t miss an opening date, whether it’s a presidential library or a store.”
   Bruce estimates Lucia spent about five months on the job, with the biggest push coming on the interior work at the end. White says Tennessee Valley began getting drawings and tickets for the job the November before the opening, with work beginning in January and running through July.
   “It took us about five months, and we had five setters with about 10 helpers, plus a supervisor,” Bruce says. “We had about 16 guys there for the length of the project.”
   He adds that the exterior stone was approximately 3’ X 5’ X 4”, with the interior in the same size, except for a 1 ½” thickness. The paving stones were 2’ X 4’ and smaller.
   “The exterior was all a mechanically-anchored system where stainless steel anchors were inset into the edge of the stone and bolted back to a concrete wall,” Bruce explains. “The flooring was a mud set.”
   It was at that point that the tight schedule became a problem.
   “Toward the end, we had a lot of trades on top of each other, and so we ended up working a lot of Saturdays,” Bruce adds. “We wanted to get our flooring in without having people walking on top of our work. The building took some time, and especially with the interior stone; it comes toward the end of any project, and everybody’s scrambling.”
   Polshek’s McClurkan says Lucia really went above and beyond the call of duty in finishing the interior stone.
   “Lucia moved incredibly fast,” he says. “They were working so quickly and protecting it so well that we didn’t get a chance to go down and admire the job until it was almost done. When they were doing the final cleaning, it was like an unveiling.”
   However, the feeling that everyone rose to a higher level on the Clinton Presidential Library seems to permeate all those involved.
   “CDI was so far out ahead of all the coordination and potential problems on the jobsite that by the time any of the major subs came to do work there were no major problems,” says McClurkan. “They set the tone of professionalism and quality and they expected no less than what they were doing. They got really fine work from everybody who was there.”
   Lucia’s Bruce agrees.
   “You don’t normally get them that good,” he says. “Everybody seemed to get along, we didn’t have any major problems and everything went smoothly, from the fabricator to the installation.”
   He adds that since the completion of the library Lucia has bid other projects with CDI, and also is working with Polshek on another project.
   Of course, some of that is simply the pride of being involved in a presidential library. Both CDI’s Bennett and Tennessee Valley’s White say that aspect of the job has meant a lot to them.
   “We’re very pleased to have been involved in a presidential library,” says Bennett. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity because there are so few built, and it’s been a very positive thing for our city.”
   “We’re certainly proud of it,” says White. “The company has done a lot of major projects, but this is the first time we’ve done a presidential library and it’s a structure we’re proud of have participated in. Our stone is definitely part of a bridge from the present into the future.”
   As for the clients, well, the architect says Polshek Partnership is pretty pleased with the end result, too.
   “The Clintons were very involved both with the design phase and the material selection, which is fantastic,” says McClurkan. “I think every indication we have is that it was everything President Clinton expected.”

Client: William J. Clinton Foundation, Little Rock, Ark.
Architect: Polshek Partnership Architects, New York
Contractor: CDI Contractors, LLC Little Rock, Ark.
Stone Subcontractor: Lucia Inc., Houston
Stone Supplier: Tennessee Valley Marble, Friendsville, Tenn.

This article first appeared in the December 2005 print edition of Stone Business. ©2005 Western Business Media Inc.