The Allison, Newberg, Ore.
Paull says his crew also did hand-cutting at the site – really what he describes as trimming to help fit them to a pattern. The stones, generally 3”-5” in depth, were then kerf-cut to inset the tie system used to attach them to the building.
“The whole cladding system is special,” says Paull. “Because the whole project was big on energy efficiency, it has a double wall with an air space between it, and then we used a hanging system on each of the stones. It was a difficult system, but it turned out better than I anticipated.”
Paull adds that the scope of the project was such that Guinett had as many as 45 masons and 15 hod carriers on the site for a little more than a year. For him, the hardest part of the job might have been the physical size of the building.
“The difficult part was the height,” he says. “It was a challenge installing the scaffolding and then getting all the materials up to the fourth story to work.”
ANOTHER WORLD
While Paull and Cates worked to make sure much of the exterior stone came from within the 500-mile radius required for LEED points; some of the interior stone (as well as exterior accents) came all the way from China, thanks to Seattle-based Yellow Mountain StoneWorks.
The evidence of the imported stone, a mix of Redheart limestone and black slate, is strongest in the lobby, where the Redheart is paired with a more-traditional Brazilian multi-rust slate supplied by Oregon Tile and Marble; both stones also make an appearance in the exterior paving.
GGLO’s Schaefer says her firm is quite familiar with Yellow Mountain’s product line, and looked specifically at different stones the company could provide.
“We wanted to add some contrast to the slate flooring,” Schaefer says. “The Redheart limestone was one that we thought would work quite well, and it was part of the project early on. In terms of color, it’s lovely, and the redness is a nice counterpoint to the green slate.”
John Williams, Yellow Mountain’s president, says while some people may consider limestone too soft for floors, that isn’t always the case.
“The limestones we represent from Asia are categorically a little different than most of the limestones we think of in this country which tend to be significantly softer and not as robust,” says Williams. “Most limestones from China are about 165 lbs per ft³, their absorptions are consistently below half a percent and they have compressive strength that ranges from 14,000-18,000 psi. They operate an awful lot like granites.”