St. Francis Xavier

Stillwater, OK

Mason Contractor: Sun Valley Masonry, Inc.
Architect: Franck & Lohsen Architects
General Contractor: Nabholz Construction
Suppliers: Advanced Architectural Stone, Inc. ; Sioux City Brick & Tile Co ; Summit Specialty Products

Wall System: Cavity Wall: Brick Veneer/Steel Stud

Project Description

This project consisted of approx. 480,000 modular brick and more than 5000 different pieces of stone. Within the project, we used load bearing reinforced wet cast stone, GRFC accent pieces, and dry tamp cast stone pieces. All totaling about 520K in material cost. The stone was meticulously produced and supplied by Advanced Architectural Cast Stone in FT. Worth TX. The brick was supplied by Kansas Brick and Tile and the manufacture was Sioux City Brick in Iowa. This was a 5 brick mingle and was laid with a colored mortar.

From the beginning, we were instructed that the design of this building was a 200-year design so zero allowances were made for a lesser quality material, component or install method. 100% of our thru-wall flashing was a 16oz. copper flashing that was custom bent for each location and solders with soldering irons. All inside corner, outside corners and end dams were also custom made for each location and soldered into place. Over 200 gothic style masonry arches or radius windows and each one has a custom-made copper arch flashing above.

A very special project as the Division Manager for Sun Valley Masonry was married in the old church and place where his children were baptized. The building was the talk of the town during the construction phases and a photo op for everyone once complete.

An amazing job by Jonathan Stone, Sun Valley Masonry Field Superintendent. Both Jonathan Lowery, Project Director and Larry Taylor, Site Superintendent with Nabholz Construction in Oklahoma City did a meticulous job managing the vast amount of detail both interior and exterior. A special thanks to all the folks at Advanced Architectural Cast Stone for pulling off this amazing design with 3 different cast products. And all the many men and woman it took to bring this project to life! God Bless!

Photography by Josh Rauscher