Masterworks in Masonry

The Rocky Mountain Masonry Institute’s Masterworks in Masonry awards honor the best in masonry design and construction in the Rocky Mountain region. Our Masterworks awards originated as the Steve Dach awards in the 1990s and have evolved over time. The 2009 Masterworks awards recognize Commercial, Load Bearing, and Institutional masonry projects completed in the past year. This is the first year that RMMI has fully partnered with McGraw Hill’s Gold Hard Hat program, and the judging was done by the same team that judged the Gold Hard Hats with the noted exception that our Technical Staff - Diane Travis and Shahnaz Jaffari recused themselves from judging the masonry projects.

Commercial Masonry
Third Place: NorthCreek Phase III
Submitted by: J.C. Slocum at The Gallegos Corporation
Owner: Western Development Group
General Contractor: The Weitz Company
Project Design Firm: Humphries Poli Architects
NorthCreek Phase III is a mixed use commercial project in Cherry Creek. The $20 million project broke ground in November 2007 and was completed n March 2009. Multiple masonry materials used include granite cladding, sandstone cladding, ashlar sandstone veneer, CMU and granite paving. These materials came from a variety of sources in China, Canada, Texas and Minnesota and Lyons, Colorado.

Second Place: Johnstown Town Hall
Submitted by: Josh Cronholm at Ammex Masonry
Owner: Town of Johnstown
General Contractor: Mark Young Construction Inc.
Project Design Firm: Andrews & Anderson Architects
Johnstown Town Hall is nearly 18,000 square feet and is designed to serve Johnstown’s projected population growth and town staff for at least two decades. The $3.5 million project was completed in January 2009. The exterior of the building consists of modular brick veneer, precast concrete bands, coping window sills and headers, and sandstone panels. The interior entry features a full height Lyons red sandstone fireplace.

First Place: Arrabelle at Vail Square
Submitted by: David Little at The Gallegos Corporation
Owner: Vail Resorts
General Contractor: Shaw Construction
Project Design Firm: 42/40 Architecture
Arrabelle at Vail Square is a luxury hotel designed to evoke the authentic character of European Alpine destinations. The hotel features 62 lavish guest rooms and suites as well as 25 private residences. This $180 million project broke ground in January 2005 and was completed in September 2008.
The masonry portion of this project involved more than 10,500 cast stone pieces, including window and door surrounds, balcony fascias and balustrades. Pieces weighed up to 3,000 pounds, requiring special handling techniques. The Gallegos Corporation installed 125,000 square feet of interlocking concrete pavers, 30,000 square feet of Rubble Limestone veneers and 25,000 square feet of CMU in this project. In addition, they installed numerous fireplace surrounds and limestone columns in the elegant Centre V Restaurant.


Institutional Masonry
Second Place: South Adams County Fire District Station No. 7
Submitted by: Peter Hynes at Urbitecture
Owner: South Adams County Fire Department
General Contractor: Anderson Construction Company
Project Design Firm: Urbitecture
The South Adams County Fire Station #7 is a 4,824 square foot structure anchored by two back-in style apparatus bays that open toward sweeping views of the Rocky Mountains. The $818,500 project broke ground in September 2008 and was completed in April 2009. The station tower and apparatus bays are load-bearing brick on block masonry construction and the center dorms are brick veneer on wood frame construction. The project includes tumbled brick, precast stone accent quoins, concrete paving, and classic brick arches.

First Place: Arvada West High School Phase II
Submitted by Tim Habben at LOA Architects
Owner: Jefferson County Public Schools
General Contractor: JHL Constructors
Project Design Firm: LOA Architects, P.C.
The Phase II design and construction was an addition to the Phase I west wing structure of Arvada West High School, which was completed in 2003. Exterior materials include two colors of brick masonry and corrugated metal panels. The atrium floor material is porcelain tile. This $25.5 million project broke ground in August 2006 and was completed in December 2008.
The initial concept for Phase I and Phase II was for the school to have an office building image which features large punched exterior windows and a two-story atrium. Contiguous to the atrium space are two levels of classrooms, which have borrowed light windows that capture the light of the atrium. In 2003, the daylighting concept was not yet popular, but has since come into vogue. Phase II features classrooms that have both exterior windows and interior “borrowed light” windows.


Load-Bearing Masonry
Perriman-Brown Residence
Submitted by Kevin Shaffer at KWS Design, LLC
Owner: Janet Perriman & Greg Brown
General Contractor: Janet Perriman & Greg Brown
Project Design Firm: KWS Design, LLC
The Perriman-Brown residence is a Santa Fe-style home nestled in a Golden, Colorado, residential community. This load-bearing masonry home is a design-build project which was value engineered with recycled concrete masonry units. All of the CMU’s were leftovers from other complete projects. This $350,000 project broke ground in September 2007 and was completed in June 2009.
This home includes an enhanced courtyard gateway with hand-carved wood doors, two kivas integral with the courtyard walls and custom spa, a full outdoor kitchen, a solid roof structure featuring steel beams clad with hand hewn wood to match the architecture, shade structure, and water feature with waterfalls and pool. The courtyard wall presented particular challenges due to its multi-curving length and integral kivas, window punches, gates and gateways, and utilities.

Mud Will Fly

Colorado Construction Career Days is next week. That means for two days, Oct 6 & 7, volunteers from Creative Hardscapes, Berich Masonry, A.P. Eberlein, Grosvenor Masonry and more will be teaching about 1,600 high school students how to lay brick using materials donated by United Rentals, Eatherton Masonry, A.P. Eberlein, and Grosvenor Masonry, among others. If you’ve got a mason or hoddie to spare for the day, let us know and we’ll put them to work. It takes a village to keep high schoolers from getting into mortar fights. Call 303-893-3838 or email nancy@rmmi.org