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The Hardscape/Landscape Golden Trowel Award whose design attracted emotional admiration was Overland Partners of San Antonio and Brazos Masonr y’s Texas A&M Bonfire Memorial in College Station. The architectural firm was selected for the project in a statewide competition over 174 other entries. The memorial honors students that were killed and injured in a 1999 bonfire. The 185 foot diameter ring and the girth and height of its clean cut stone materials ensured the necessary monumentality in the flat grassy meadow and to effectively symbolize the unbroken Aggie spirit. The judges were intrigued with the wide berth polished stone arcs that function as seating and seem to hover a few inches above the grass between the irregularly-spaced portal jambs. Traylor credited the architects with capturing visitors’ reverence toward the senseless tragedy with an abstract and formal assemblage of large solid stone pieces to create a timeless memorial. The most admired project, to some of the judges, was the Hardscape/Landscape Honorable Mention, Allen Civic Plaza by Dallas-based sculptor Brad Goldberg and landscape architect David C. Baldwin of Plano with masonry contractor Dee Brown. The plaza creates a viable park-like amenity in the interstitial space between city hall and three other municipal buildings. The hardscape also visually links the city buildings with its fountain, waterfalls, serpentine stream, reflecting pool and landscaped “Leuders” limestone terraces. Tibbetts lauded the organic composition of Goldberg’s curvilinear and rugged large scale limestone pieces to create a natural environment in dramatic contrast to its orthogonal office park context. The projects recognized in the 2005 Golden Trowel Awards program are below, with the names of the architect and masonry contractor listed respectively: Brick Category • Winner – Ashton Place in Dallas by Gromatzky Dupree and Associates of Dallas with Dee Brown • Honorable Mention – Christ Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Houston by Gabriel Architects of Houston with United Masonry Stone Category • Winner – Christus St. Elizabeth Chapel in Beaumont by HOK of Houston with Lucia • Honorable Mention – 500 Throckmorton Tower in Fort Worth by Corgan Associates of Dallas with C&D Commercial Masonry
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The 500 Throckmorton Tower in Fort Worth by Corgan Associates of Dallas and C&D Commercial Masonry was an Honorable Mention in the stone category. The former downtown office
Photos by Charles davis smith, AIA
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building was converted into a 316-unit townhouse tower above an office and retail base.
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