Grande Pinnacle Award
Fortaleza Hall and Commons Building, Racine, WI
MIA Member Company:
Mankato Kasota Stone, Inc. Mankato, MN
- Stone Supplier - Stone Fabricator
Other Project Team Members:
SC Johnson - Client
Foster + Partners - Architect
A. Epstein & Sons - Architect of Record
Pape Dawson Engineers, Inc. - Civil Engineer
Gilbane Building Company - General Contractor
Arteaga Construction - Stone Installer
Stone:
Dolomitic Limestone
Kasota Rose Blend
Located on the SC Johnson Global headquarters in Racine, Wisconsin, the project creates companion buildings: Fortaleza Hall, which provides a permanent home for the replica Carnauba and conveys the story of H.F.
Johnson, Jr.'s flight; and the Commons, which gives the campus a new social heart. Fortaleza Hall and the Commons were built by the SC Johnson Family as a tribute to the late SC Johnson leader Sam Johnson and his father, H.F. Johnson, Jr.
Mankato Kasota Stone's goal was to achieve the design and aesthetic intent of the architects using dolomitic limestone.
Color was a critical piece in the decision making process, along with creating the radius design of the project. Both played an integral part in achieving some resemblance to the Frank Lloyd Wright building on the SC Johnson Campus. Mankato Kasota Stone used the same quarry for this project as Frank Lloyd Wright did for the copings on his Administration Building. The architectural team wanted to honor and incorporate Wright's design principles, such as bull-nosed curves on the end of the building, while still maintaining a modern design.
The Commons, a solid looking building, has a stone mass that curves around to envelope the east side of the glass pavilion. In contrast to Fortaleza Hall's open design, the Commons is constructed with solid Kasota stone walls and forms a visual separateness to the steel and glass structure of the hall.
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