BSI honors Mendel with Tucker Award

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Mark Mendel, of Monterey Masonry LLC
Mark Mendel, of Monterey Masonry LLC, working as a stone consultant for Cuningham Group Architects of Minneapolis, Minnesota, was part of the design team that received the 2012 Tucker Design Award, a biennial award presented by the Building Stone Institute.

Established in 1977, the Tucker Awards honor those who achieve the criteria of excellence in the use of natural stone in concept, design, and construction. The Tucker Design Award is the most prestigious national award given in the stone industry. The prize was awarded for Epic Systems Inc.’s Campus Two. Epic, based in Verona Wisconsin, is a medical software company.

Mendel used approximately 4800 tons of stone for the Campus Two project, creating a unique mix of sandstone and bluestone sourced from ten different quarry sites in Pennsylvania and New York.

According to John Cuningham, principal of Cuningham Group Architects, “A very important thing was that the craftsman helped develop the detailed work. The stonework around the windows and corners is beautiful. Mark worked closely with the quarry–it is a unique mixture of stone. He came out here and laid stone and taught the local masons what was peculiar to the stone and how to be careful.” Comments from the jurors of the Tucker Design Award summed it up: “Masterful application of traditional stone veneer in a way that brings richness to the surrounding environment while connecting the building to its place. Great use of both natural cleft face and cut stone to exemplify openings and connection from inside to out.”

“I found some different stones that would work together and mixed a lot of different colors and cuts,” Mendel explained. “The old masons weren’t fussy that every stone match; they just wanted good stones. I mixed a sandstone in with all the bluestone. The natural face was in the brown range but when we snapped it open it revealed a yellow and almost a blood orange/red. I think the red really makes the bluestone pop. The quoins, the copings, the returns, the lintels, the cut stone pieces go back to the middle ages. We even made stone scuppers to drain the flat roofs. This project is a hybrid of contemporary design and ancient techniques. This project is a hybrid of contemporary design and ancient techniques. It is an old vocabulary in a 21st century story. I think people feel an emotional power when you get stone right.”
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