2012 Tucker Design Awards

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2012 Tucker Design Awards Presentation

Building Stone Institute, one of the country’s longest serving natural stone trade associations, presented the 2012 Tucker Design Awards at the Missouri Botanical Gardens in St. Louis on May 11. Established in 1977, the Tucker Design Awards honor those who achieve a criteria of excellence in the use of natural stone in concept, design and construction. The award is a prestigious biennial architectural design recognition valued by both the building and landscape communities. For members of the Building Stone Institute, acknowledgement as a contributor to a Tucker Design Award winning project is a genuine tribute to their traditional values, physicality of work and dedication to precise specifications required in the realization of such accomplished architectural design. This year’s recipients represent some of the finest building and landscape projects completed throughout North America utilizing natural stone from around the globe. Tucker Design Awards celebrate the innovation and vision that designers bring to their projects through the specification and use of natural stone materials.

Reviving a National Landmark

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Reviving a National Landmark

By Jennifer Adams

In 1871, architect John McArthur Jr. watched as construction started on what would become a 30-year endeavor — the building of City Hall in Philadelphia,PA. Constructed of Massachusetts Lee marble and granite quarried from sites in New England, Philadelphia City Hall is considered “one of the finest examples of French Second Empire architecture.” The masonry portion of the tower is 337 feet high — constructed of marble with an 18-foot granite base — and was the tallest load-bearing masonry structure in the world when it was constructed. But although it has always been held in high regard, the building — now a registered National Historic Landmark — was neglected through the decades, causing its white marble exterior to deteriorate. Recently, an 11-year restoration project wrapped up, which returned City Hall’s architecture back to its original grandeur.

Reviving a Charleston Landmark

Reviving a Charleston landmark

Reviving a Charleston Landmark

By Angelle Bergeron September/October 2011

Dubbed “The Holy City,” Charleston, SC, is home to more than 400 places of worship — many that can be seen from the city’s beautiful skyline. Among the numerous religious institutions is St. John the Baptist Cathedral, which was originally built in 1851. While a fire destroyed the cathedral in 1861, the structure was fully reconstructed in 1907. Over time though, the cathedral’s exterior Brownstone facade deteriorated, but a recent restoration project has restored the building to its former glory.

Cathedral of St. John the Baptist

An 84-ft-tall copper steeple is finally added to a Charleston cathedral 100 years after the church was constructed

By Angelle Bergeron September/October 2011

When Hightower Construction Co. Inc. of Charleston, S.C., tackled the $6.2-million restoration and steeple addition of the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Charleston, the lives of “all the members of the team were forever changed or affected positively,” says Jesse Rhodes, special projects engineer for the Carolinas AGC member.

Hightower devised a way to construct a towering, copper-clad, 84-ft steeple atop the 85-ft-tall historic church, creating one of the city’s most prominent architectural icons. The project won a 2011 Build America Award.

Renovating the Gardens and Exterior of the Rodin Museum

The completion of a multiyear rejuvenation
FACT SHEET

The historic Rodin Museum and Gardens, opened in 1929 and administered by the Philadelphia Museum of Art since 1939, is renowned for both the beauty of its grounds and architecture, an extraordinary blend of art and nature, and the importance of its holdings—one of the largest collections of works by Auguste Rodin in the world.

In the spirit of its original design, the exterior of the museum and its surrounding garden and landscape have now been rejuvenated. In partnership with the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society and Fairmount Park, the Museum secured support for this initiative in 2008 through generous grants from the City of Philadelphia, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, The Pew Charitable Trusts, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and the William Penn Foundation. Showcasing an urban oasis, the new design was conceived and overseen by OLIN, one of the country’s preeminent landscape-architecture firms. Funded by grants from the William B. Dietrich Foundation and the City of Philadelphia, CVM Construction Managers, Inc. was engaged in 2010 to undertake the comprehensive renewal of the museum’s exterior, serving as historic preservation consultant, structural engineer, and construction manager.

2012 Tucker Design Awards