MIA Pinnacle Awards 2008
Award of Excellence / Renovation-Restoration
Old Red Courthouse Clock Tower
Dallas
Stone Subcontractor: Dee Brown Inc. Garland, Texas (honoree, MIA member)
Owner: Dallas County, Texas
Architect: James Pratt & Associates, Dallas
General Contractor: Thos. S. Byrne Ltd., Dallas
Stone Suppliers: State Stone Corp., Murray, Utah (MIA member); Freshwater Stone & Brickwork Inc., Orland, Maine; Granicor, St. Augustin, Quebec (MIA member)
Original 1890s construction included the bell tower, but it was dismantled in 1919 when the building's structure proved incapable of supporting it. Restoration work completed in 2007 allowed the new bell tower to be supported by a steel structure; extensive research to match the original stone resulted in the use of Torrey sandstone, along with Vermillion and Morning Mist granites. Stone was fabricated in cubic through-wall pieces with hand-pitched faces and laid in largely the same fashion as in the 1890s – but with modern engineered anchorages to hold the 5,500 ft³ of stone.
