Stone-Ideas.com 
A striking feature is a long double-wythe stone wall that connects the three buildings
In 2011, a striking building was finished in the USA in a solid stone construction, the Municipal Complex in the center of the town of Wylie in Texas. The task for the architects from Holzman Moss Bottino Architecture in cooperations with Architexas, was to create a building that was highly recognizable and would last for at least 100 years, bore echoes of a former ranch on the site and implement the idea of sustainable construction.
The architects placed a 770-foot (235 m) long natural stone wall in the landscape, rising from a height of 12 feet (3.7 m) at one end to 45 feet (13.7 m) at the other.
Behind them are the three buildings, which in turn have one floor (library), two (recreation center) or three (town hall). They are located right next to each other.
From in front of the wall you can guess at them without seeing them: they are noticeable through windows an openings in the wall. The passages act as entrances from the parking lot.
The construction is load-bearing: the ceilings and roofs of the buildings are anchored in the wall on one side.
In addition to the requirement that the architecture should refer to the local construction methods, there was also a vote for local materials. The wall is built from Permian Sea Coral limestone, which comes from the TexaStone quarries in Garden City, less than 500 miles away.
This is one of the ways in which the LEED Silver certification was achieved.
The wall is constructed with double-layer assembly. A system of wire ties was used to hold the two wythes together, and every 10 feet, there is vertical reinforcement. Details of the construction are described in the Building Stone Magazine (Fall 2011), published at the time by the Building Stone Institute, BSI (now the Natural Stone Institute, NSI). We have linked to the download page below.
The stone is split-faced, as seen on old farmhouses. This finish also appears on the inside walls of the buildings there.
In addition to these rough blocks, there are smooth surfaces, such as for some of the blocks that support the concrete columns above the doorways and for headers.
Accents of iridescent metal tiles provide a striking contrast to the natural stone in the wall.
Building Stone Magazine (Fall 2011)
Photos: City of Wylie
See also:
(23.09.2024, USA: 09.23.2024)