2012 Tucker Design Awards: Dynamic Dozen

Duke Divinity School Addition
Duke University, Durham, N.C.

Click photo to enlargeDesigner: Hartman–Cox Architects LLP, Washington
Stone Installer: Rugo Stone LLC, Lorton, Va.
Stone Suppliers: Bybee Stone Co., Ellettsville, Ind.; Duke Stone, Hillsboro, N.C.

The west campus of Duke, from Horace Trumbauer Architect chief designer Julian Abele (the first African-American architecture graduate of the University of Pennsylvania) in the 1920s, is a beautiful assemblage of Collegiate Gothic buildings. The Divinity school addition faces the Memorial Garden and the nave of the chapel forming a cloister with the open loggia that links the chapel to the original Divinity School building.

The addition’s three-story design takes advantage of a steep slope by locating a new chapel and three terraced floors between “new Divinity” and the Memorial Wall. They are connected by a stepped, linear stair and corridor tying the spaces together visually and functionally.Click photo to enlarge

The new chapel is located on the mid-level between the entrances from the Memorial Garden and the entrance from the parking to the north ,and is on axis with the transept of Duke chapel. The refectory, also located at the mid- level, serves as a social area for the chapel. The new building creates a centrally oriented arrangement, radial rather than linear.

Extensive research was done during the design process to replicate original materials and methods. Most notable is the way the university owned “Duke stone” – a blend of seven primary colors and 17 shades of gray, beige, browns, rusts and blues – was quarried. The crisp, hard-edged character of the stone used in buildings constructed from about the middle of the 20th century hifted to a stone style that is smaller, more-rounded and inconsistent due to more recent blasting and ripping methods used in the quarry. The campus architect researched and resurrected the older methods of quarrying, cutting, and laying the stone to get results similar to those of the old buildings.

Designers also did extensive research and worked closely with the Indiana quarry fabricating all the limestone trim, chimney pots, spires and tracery windows to replicate the quality and detail found in the Duke chapel.

Juror Comments:

• Wonderful replication of the existing gothic complex. Beautiful stone carving and detailing rarely seen in today’s world.

• Among a number of academic submissions this extension of the existing Divinity School represents the highest form of stone mason and stonecutter’s art. Not only extends detail of quality and character of the building, but achieves a unique delicacy of detail that will not be found in the future of contemporary building making.

• An unabashedly historicist addition to the school and campus, the extensive use of “Duke stone” gives this design immediate contextual strength. A commitment to a high quality of construction is evident throughout, from the thoughtful specifications provided by the architects, to the craft demonstrated by the masons and stonecarvers.

Epic Corporate Headquarters, Campus Two
Verona, Wis.

Click photo to enlargeDesigner: Cuningham Group Architecture, P.A., Minneapolis
Stone Installer: J.P. Cullen & Sons Inc., Janesville, Wis.
Stone Suppliers: Monterey Masonry, Sheffield, Mass.; Granite Importers, Barre, Vt.; Tompkins Bluestone Co., Hancock, N.Y.

From the project’s inception, the owner desired a campus that embraced the rural context and brand she worked hard to cultivate. She also requested that the buildings nestle into the landscape and create their own individual identities, yet meld gracefully with the larger whole of the campus.

The four buildings that make up Campus 2 arc along the edge of a prominent ridge, seemingly growing out of the gentle slope. Each building has two distinct wings, linked together by enclosed bridges sitting atop exposed steel and concrete piers. Stone was a natural material choice in the rural context among the fields and high grasses surrounding the campus.Click photo to enlarge

The bluestone/sandstone blend, which was taken from nine different quarries, has a diversity mirroring that of the moraines left behind by glaciers as they carved the hilly landscape. Flamed-edge bluestone quoining moderates the transition between the rough fieldstone and the more predictable faces of brick, wood, and steel.

The stone bases place the buildings in the landscape contextually, while the brick on the upper stories of the buildings matches the phase one campus buildings, tying the two campuses together through materiality. Small outcroppings of stone and standing seam copper further delineate entrances, stair towers, and roof decks.

Juror Comments:

• This complex of buildings truly reflects its surrounding agrarian style. The structures are designed with a human scale and proportion. The combination of contemporary and farmland styles is unique and pleasing to the judges.

• 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.

• The corporate campus skillfully demonstrates brick and fieldstone construction in concert with timber framing, steel secondary structures, and extensive glazed surfaces – all used to intimate a close-knit, supportive environment.