An earlier version of this article appeared in the Spring 2022 edition of Building Stone Magazine.

Cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead is credited for saying, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

This sentiment rings true for Houston residents. Just over 20 years ago, a small group of Houstonians got together to discuss the idea of creating Houston’s first botanic garden. Today, locals and visitors can enjoy the fruits of that discussion. The Houston Botanic Garden opened its doors in September 2020, signaling the completion of the first phase of what will become a 132-acre design on an island in the city’s expansive Bayou system.

Natural Stone Frames the Project

Guests strolling through the garden will see more than 3,000 growing species from all over the world. Many are plants that have never been seen in this area. They will also see a stunning feature wall and fountain created using unique natural stone, some of which was sustainably harvested from the Dominican Republic.

Natural stone played a major role in framing the garden, according to Donna Bridgeman Rossi, the project director at West 8, an urban planning and landscape architecture firm based in Rotterdam, Netherlands, with offices in the United States.

“When you look at the garden in the context of the overall island, it’s essentially plants within green space,” Rossi says. “We went with concrete, stone, metal, and ceramic to introduce a series of architectural interventions that would act as a backdrop to frame the garden and also give infrastructure and shade and introduce water.” Natural stone was included to give the overall design the bones that frame the collection and give it a sense of place.

Rossi often incorporates natural stone for her projects because of its inherently sustainable qualities. “Natural stone is such a noble material, and there’s a gravity to it that is immediately recognizable and universally appreciated by everyone,” she says. “It’s not a subjective mix material, it is good in its own state that we value. You don’t have to modify it in any way to make it do what it needs to do.”

In total, four areas feature natural stone during this initial phase of the Houston Botanic Garden project: the garden entrance, the pavilion, the alcove feature wall, and the fountain. As part of the innovative green wall design, plants grow in natural voids within the stone surface of the fountain or within pockets intentionally lined along a wall.

Finding the Perfect Stones

Photo by Alamo Stone Company

Finding those ideal stones meant Rossi and her team had to fly to the Dominican Republic with their mason and stone supplier. This is where they located Calypso Coral stone, a limestone with characteristically visible shells and sea fossils. They hand selected 64 Calypso Coral blocks for the green wall from the field that are often left as waste material and tagged each block based on their expressive characteristics. For example, Rossi says, some blocks had pockets or holes while others already had some kind of soil in it. These details, each unique to the 64 blocks, would prove to be critical for the overall design.

What is often considered waste material was part of the reason this stone was selected for the fountain. It was a sustainable choice, and the stone was already acting as a planter for plant collections in its natural state. “We thought it was an ideal candidate to work as a host for collections within the garden,” Rossi says.

“Essentially, the green wall blocks are from the upper crust of the quarry,” Rossi explains. Often, this stone is discarded as a waste material because it doesn’t have the consistent properties suitable for cladding as one would get from the lower tiers of the quarry. The upper crust is subjected to wind erosion, soil deposition, salt, and other conditions because it comes from an island climate. This is what gives the stone its unique finish and characteristics desired for this project. The fact that it came from a humid tropical climate similar to Houston’s also made it an ideal choice for both the fountain and feature wall.

Photo by Alamo Stone Company

The Calypso Coral stone was quarried and fabricated in the Dominican Republic. The firm collaborated with Camarata Masonry Systems in Houston to develop the shop drawings and to supply and install the masonry units, stone cladding, and blocks at the feature wall and fountain.

Once the blocks were brought to Houston, each was hand placed on site with the crane operator to pick the best face where they could plant soil pockets. “We did little mesh bags that were embedded in the pockets and then we introduced irrigation,” Rossi says. Six carved Calypso Coral stone scuppers strategically positioned within the cubic green wall blocks serve as the waterspouts in the fountain. Holes were drilled through the suitable pockets after it was assembled.

To help the plants get the necessary water to keep them alive, an equipment room behind the blocks runs all the irrigation. “The irrigation head looks like an octopus,” Rossi adds. It has a branching system that threads through the blocks and includes a drip emitter. This system allows the garden horticultural staff to plant and curate an aquatic collection since the system is continually wet.

Carrying through the overall design, 6,100 square feet of 1” thick Calypso Coral stone wall cladding and 560 linear feet of 3” thick Calypso Coral stone coping was used to create the feature wall cladding.

The team was drawn to the Calypso Coral stone because of its porous characteristics and the opportunity of using a waste material. That’s not to say Rossi wasn’t offered other suggestions like veneers or porcelains. “Throughout the project, people tried to talk us into porcelain at many intervals, like a stamped pattern of a piece of stone on porcelain,” she says. “We felt very firmly that we didn’t want to underestimate our audience. We felt they would know and appreciate a natural material in a natural setting.”

On the masonry side, two things presented unique challenges based on West 8’s unique design, according to Scott Slimp, vice president at Camarata Masonry Systems. “The first was the close coordination between the masonry wall with the planter box openings and the intricate recessed groove in the Calypso Coral stone cladding that tied in specifically with the planter box openings for the feature wall,” he says.

To support growing plant media along the stone wall cladding, 55 individual planter boxes were built into the wall and terracotta inserts in the back are connected to irrigation so horticulturalist and staff can pull them out on the backside and replant them.

Additionally, the alcove wall fountain was particularly challenging when it came to selecting and positioning of the stone blocks, according to Slimp. “The Calypso Coral stone chosen for the green wall is very unique in its appearance, which comes primarily from its location in the quarry,” he notes. “The upper most layer of material in the quarry, sits just inches from the surface of the ground. The proximity to the surface is what gives the material its characteristic sizable voids.” As mentioned earlier, those voids were critical to the design and function of the alcove wall fountain so getting them positioned correctly was important.

Meeting Challenges and Exceeding Expectations

A project of this magnitude always runs the risk of things becoming complicated since several companies are involved.

For Rossi, the most challenging part of the project was the amount of teamwork and coordination that had to happen since several consultants and different systems had to come together. More important still, in an environment like Houston, you pretty much have to irrigate everything, she adds.

Rossi lists more than a dozen groups trying to come together for a shared vision and each has an important role to play, including multiple structural engineers, civil engineers, irrigation consultants, planting consultants, horticultural consultants, masons, stone supply, erection specialists, and contractors.

Photo by Alamo Stone Company

Sustainability is key to everything the botanic garden is doing, from what they’re growing to how the garden is designed. For West 8, that ethos goes beyond choosing natural stone that is normally cast aside as waste material. It applies to using professionals who have earned Natural Stone Institute Accreditation, having met or exceeded standards set by the international organization for best-in-class installation methods and a priority for safety. Working with accredited companies like Camarata Masonry Systems provides Rossi and her team a level of comfort they can in turn share with their client.

According to Slimp, what often goes unsaid or perhaps unnoticed, is the effort that goes into properly addressing key design features. For this project, the selection process of the green wall blocks and then the final positioning within the fountain to achieve the finished appearance that West 8 had in mind when they selected this one-of-a-kind material was notable. Secondly, the quality control and tight tolerances for the location of the planter boxes and the stone cladding were important and needed to be just right, according to Slimp.

Seeing the final product is always a joy and the project has been well-received by Houston residents and partners. Since the garden opened its doors during a global pandemic, Rossi feels the design has been warmly embraced as much as for its characteristics as it is for celebrating outdoor space safely.

Photo by Hester and Hardaway Photographers

“It’s given people [in Houston] a new opportunity that they didn’t have before in challenging times, to be able to get outside and see things that they’ve never seen before. Although it’s in its infancy, it’s been welcomed,” she adds.

While some guests may not immediately notice or appreciate the amount of work done behind the scenes to bring a vision from 20 years ago to life today, many in the industry are taking notice.

In addition to earning a 2021 Pinnacle Award of Excellence from the Natural Stone Institute, Camarata Masonry Systems was awarded a Golden Trowel Award by the Texas Masonry Council. Slimp believes his company was recognized for its work as well as the unique design by West 8 in using the unique Calypso Coral stone. This distinction and recognition is important and appreciated by Slimp and his colleagues.

“The presentation of the project to your peers, designers and general contractors and then the further recognition by the same group for the exceptional execution of the work is always a win-win result that leaves you with a sense of pride for a job well done,” Slimp says.

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Courtesy of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission: Photography by Alan Karchmer; Memorial design by Gehry Partners, LLP; Tapestry by Tomas Osinski; Sculpture by Sergey Eylanbekov

​When an architectural team wants to make sure the natural stone being specified for a project is available, the team calls Enzo Giambattista, a natural stone consultant with Enmar Consulting in Ontario, Canada.

It’s more than just getting what the architect ordered. According to Giambattista, as a natural stone consultant, it’s his job to make sure that the stone selection process goes as smoothly as possible from beginning to end.

Giambattista recently returned from Turkey, where he was visiting a quarry on behalf of an architectural firm. Their client had worked with him previously and wanted his opinion on the stone. Giambattista visited the quarry to make sure the stone met expectations before the client committed.

Trips like this are not made in vain. In this case, the natural stone did not have the range and color the architect was expecting, according to Giambattista. He stayed in Turkey to source a similar stone that would work for the project. Since he’s familiar with the quarries and their capabilities, he was able to identify another option and provide a solution to his client.

Knowing which quarries have the varieties and quantities of stone needed to complete an order is a key part of Giambattista’s job as a consultant. “When we know that we are sourcing a stone for a customer, we are pretty upfront,” he says. Serving as a consultant and not in a sales role, he has a vested interest in laying out all the details and options to his clients.

“We try to minimize all the costs involved and the layers of people,” Giambattista says. For example, rather than visiting three or four different distributors to find the right stone for a client’s project, Giambattista and his team can source the stone directly from the quarry. This upfront work saves money and time for the client.

Sourcing Natural Stone for the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial

Knowing what to look for when sourcing natural stone is one of the reasons Giambattista was called upon to collaborate at the early design phase with Gehry Partners on the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial project in Washington, D.C.

Courtesy of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission: Photography by Alan Karchmer; Memorial design by Gehry Partners, LLP; Tapestry by Tomas Osinski; Sculpture by Sergey Eylanbekov

Frank Gehry, CC, FAIA, and his architectural team have been involved in many high-profile projects around the world, including the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, and the Dancing House in Prague, Czech Republic. For this project, Gehry Partners wanted to use a specific stone from Spain they used for other projects, including the Guggenheim Museum.

“We started during the drawing stages,” Giambattista explains. “We looked at the drawings or the specification and we looked at sizing. Once all the details, including the sizing, price and quantities and basic scale of material was decided, then we went to the quarries to make sure that the quarries had enough material available to produce what was required for the project.”

Courtesy of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission: Photography by Alan Karchmer; Memorial design by Gehry Partners, LLP; Tapestry by Tomas Osinski; Sculpture by Sergey Eylanbekov

The Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial, which honors the life of the 34th President of the United States, is located just off the National Mall on Maryland Avenue. A 450-foot-long stainless-steel tapestry suspends across a row of six 80-foot tall, roughly five stories high, cylindrical limestone-clad concrete columns. Two more columns balance the overall design. The Spanish limestone comes from a quarry in a little area between Alicante and Murcia, according to Giambattista.

Courtesy of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission: Photography by Alan Karchmer; Memorial design by Gehry Partners, LLP; Tapestry by Tomas Osinski; Sculpture by Sergey Eylanbekov

The memorial features three bronze sculptures showing Eisenhower as a young boy, as a general with military staff members, and as head of government with staff members. The two grouped sculptures stand in front of the large rectangular volumes clad in bas-reliefs of additional natural stone bearing quotes from important speeches by Eisenhower. The quotes were carved on site by local carvers once the panels were installed.

Courtesy of Enmar Consulting.

There were a few major challenges with sourcing the stone. One was securing the size of some of the panels. The other was ensuring that the specified tone and contrast were available within the small quarry.

“And then we got to an area of the quarry where there were a lot of fractures and the color started to change,” Giambattista says. That delayed the process since you cannot speed up removing stone from a quarry to get to what you need.

Courtesy of Enmar Consulting.

To help keep the project moving forward, they shifted to another part of the quarry where they could secure smaller pieces they could use for the pavers. Even though the pavers were the last thing to be installed, they started cutting pavers and stockpiling them until they needed them since those smaller blocks were available. “You try not to stop a project,” he says. “You just look at how to shift the work if you know problems will develop.”

Working with Natural Stone

While Giambattista does consult on different types of materials, 80% of the time, architects or designers reach out to him because of the depth of his experience with natural stone and the quarries. The remaining 20% are architects or designers trying to decide between natural stone and a manmade material.

In general, most of his clients are drawn to natural stone because they’re intentionally seeking sustainable building materials. Many architects are concerned about how materials are being made and processed and how it impacts our environment, according to Giambattista. “We’ve found that stone is still the only material that is environmentally friendly because the processing on it is minimal,” he says.

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Note: This article is part of a series about American quarries. If you work for a quarry that’s a member of the Natural Stone Institute and you’d like your quarry to be featured here, contact Karin Kirk. Thank you!

From quarry customer to quarry owner

Rob Teel didn’t set out to be a quarry owner. “I got kind of painted into a corner by a quarry operation that told me halfway through a project I couldn’t get any more stone for about six months,” he recalls. “I just wondered how I was supposed to run a business or finish a project.”

He pondered his options for local limestone. “There were only a handful of sources out there. One of the sources was very expensive. One didn’t have good quality. One of the other guys wasn’t interested in selling blocks,” he says.

Sometimes the best way forward is to tackle obstacles head-on, so Rob decided to buy his own quarry. He describes the new direction as, “get in or be at the mercy of others.”

After being a stone dealer and fabricator for 12 years, Continental Cut Stone entered a new chapter as a quarrier. More than twenty years later, they’ve never looked back.

Started off simple, but…

The quarry is in Lueders—a small rural community in central Texas where outcrops of pale limestone jut out along the banks of the Brazos River. Within those humble ledges is a world-class building stone, the Lueders Limestone. Rob’s initial intent was to keep the operation simple. “We opened the quarry just to supply this one ledge block that we’d been buying from other people,” he says. But it didn’t stay that way for long.

Rob recalls the progression of the quarry. “We added a saw to utilize some of these other ledges, and then we added a chopper. When we added a chopper, we added another saw. Then we added another saw and a chopper. We put another saw in and we added a truck scale and another saw, and before you know it, it’s a lot more moving parts.”

But progress didn’t stop there, and Continental Cut Stone continued to expand. In 2009, the company added another limestone quarry to its stable when they re-opened a quarry near Liberty Hill, TX, that had been idled. The quarry produces Cordova Cream and Cordova Shell, the latter featuring crisp imprints of shell fossils.

Today Continental Cut Stone employs 60 people in the two quarries and a fabrication shop in Florence, Texas. The diverse operations of the company are run by husband-wife team Rob and Katherine Teel.

The added complexity is a business risk, but Katherine explains the upside, “Unlike other providers of limestone, Continental Cut Stone has our own quarries and produces the limestone elements in our fabrication mills. So, that helps with cost effectiveness and also control over the product.”

“The ability to control the source is absolutely a benefit to our customer,” Rob says. “We get to choose the best material.”

Developing the sustainability process, then going through it

The Teel’s journey from quarry customers to quarry owners is one of several times the company has been on different sides of the same street.

The Natural Stone Sustainability Standard is another example. When the standard was first adopted by the Natural Stone Council in 2014, Rob was one of the early proponents. “I’ve been part of the [sustainability standard] since the beginning,” he says. The company officially earned certification to the standard in summer 2021.

Kristin Cannon is the Project Coordinator at Continental Cut Stone, a position that demands a keen ability to balance many projects at once, all while learning on the fly. Among her many duties, Kristin has been responsible for shepherding the company through the process of attaining the Natural Stone Institute’s Sustainability Standard for their Cordova quarry and their fabrication mill.

“Limestone is a very sustainable product in general,” Kristin says. “We make a conscious effort to practice as sustainably as we can.” This is doubly true for the Cordova quarry, which is a leased property. Among many small-footprint practices, the Cordova quarry uses reclaimed water that settles in a small lake on the property, and is pumped back to the quarry for reuse. “You don’t want to leave a major impact on somebody else’s property, or on the earth in general,” Kristin says.

The sustainability certification process involves measuring and documenting energy use, water use, waste output, land management, and community engagement. “We just had our onsite audit a few weeks ago,” says Kristin. The audit verifies the information submitted during the application process, and helps find ways to further lower the operational footprint. In this case, “coming up with a couple of different options of ways we could potentially reduce energy here at the mill,” Kristin says. “It’s been a very interesting process.”

“This certification will allow us to have that extra stamp of approval.” Kristin says they can advise masons and architects that “not only is our product sustainable, but we manufacture it in a sustainable way.”

While Kristin manages the nitty gritty of the sustainability certification, Rob and Katherine aim to grow the program across the stone industry. Rob hopes the sustainability program gets a wider following, because the more options there are for architects to specify certified stone, the more likely they’ll do so.

In that vein, Katherine is pushing to build awareness about how sustainable natural stone can earn credits through certifications like the Living Building Challenge and LEED. Using material certified to the Natural Stone Sustainability Standard is among the many ways to earn points within the LEED rating system. Katherine has the energy and drive to build bridges between different groups within the larger sustainability arena. “I get real passionate about it because I think it’s a great program,” she says. “I’m trying to build it as we go.”

From women as outliers to women as leaders

Katherine has formed strong networks with allied associations within the architecture and masonry communities. In much of her work in the industry, she’s been the sole woman on various committees. “They are all very male dominated,” she says.

She recalls being “so excited” about the Women in Stone program, which strives to “recruit, retain, and advance women in this industry,” Katherine says. She jumped into the program with both feet, joined the steering committee and eventually became chair of the mentorship program. “Kathy Spanier started that and then handed the reins to me, which was awesome because she had done so much work,” says Katherine enthusiastically. (Read more about Kathy’s pioneering work in sustainability and mentorship.)

Katherine notes that similar professional development programs are popping up in related fields: “Women in architecture, women in masonry, women in stone,” she explains that these professional associations “create that bond and that camaraderie” that may be lacking when you’re the only woman at the conference room table.

Naturally, Katherine guided Kristin to the Women in Stone mentoring program, and Aaron Hicken (from Delta Stone in Utah) mentored Kristin at the start of her career. “Getting a chance to learn from those people and having confidence knowing what I am talking about– that helps in dealing with outside customers, masons, whoever that may be,” she says. “Even in the short 5 years that I have been here, it has made a huge difference in having the confidence to work in the industry.”

Building a business, then building the industry

Texas does things in a big way, and their stone industry is no exception. As the state’s population grows, so too does the demand for building materials. In the Lueders area, when Rob opened his first quarry, “there were eight or nine operations,” he says, “and now there’s close to twenty.”

“I’m happy to be part of an economy that’s soaring right now,” Rob says. “It’s truly rewarding and challenging at the same time. I love what I do.”

Rob and Katherine’s interests go farther than their own company, and yet again they find themselves coming full circle. “We hope to be one of those companies that tries to give back to the industry,” says Rob.

Katherine is on the Natural Stone Institute’s Sustainability Committee and has been on the board of the Central Texas Masonry Contractors Association, in addition to her leadership role in the Women in Stone program.

Rob served on the Natural Stone Council board for over 12 years including a stint as Chairman of the Board. Previous to that he was President of the Building Stone Institute. “We put a lot of effort and time into national initiatives, and I think being involved is important for all of us.”

Katherine acknowledges that time spent on industry-wide efforts takes time away from their own business. “We’re just super honored and privileged to be as active as we are,” she says. “But, it’s for everybody. It’s for the industry.”

Sea level rises, sea level falls

Continental Cut Stone’s two quarries both contain limestones, but they come from completely different times in Earth’s history. The Lueders quarry contains smooth, uniform, fine-grained limestone that ranges from pale grey to warm tan. These rocks are from the early Permian Period, around 280 million years ago. The landscape at that time was a low-lying coastal area that was a mixture of rivers, deltas, and inland seas. The limestone ledges within the Lueders Formation formed during periods when shallow water covered the landscape. Not long after that, seas departed from Texas and a more arid environment took shape. At this same time, all of the world’s continents managed to collide into each other, forming one colossal landmass called Pangea. Texas became landlocked within the supercontinent and red desert sands swept over the limestone layers.

Fast forward 150 million years to the Cretaceous Period, when the Cordova Cream and Cordova Shell limestones were formed. The Cretaceous Period, as any 9 year old will tell you, is when dinosaurs were around. Sure enough, the layers just below the Cordova limestones are famous for their dinosaur tracks, as the beasts wandered around muddy tidal flats, leaving deep footprints behind. Then sea level crept higher once again, and rich marine life populated the seas. Cordova Cream has faint patterns from undersea currents, and is made of ooids, which are small, sand-like pellets of lime. Cordova Shell is an aptly named stone, teeming with coiled gastropods and ridged clamshells. The stone is literally full of life, requiring no imagination to envision the bustling marine environment that inhabited central Texas at that time.

Through all the restless pulses and cycles of the Earth, rocks are left behind as testament to past events. For some, stone is a documentation of the twists and turn in our planet’s history. To others, it’s a ready-made building material. But a stone like Cordova Shell can satisfy either audience; it’s a building stone that showcases our planet’s history while also serving as a wall, a bench, or a classical Tuscan column. Natural stone truly is the best of both worlds.

More from the American Stones Series

An earlier version of this article originally appeared in the Fall 2020 edition of Building Stone Magazine.

For the construction of a 7,400-square-foot home in Highland Park, Texas, a pair of homeowners opted for a modern architectural style using materials that would withstand the test of time. “The overarching concept was to achieve an expression of timelessness expressed in traditional materials used in a contemporary manner,” said Mark Domiteaux, partner at domiteaux architects in Dallas, who worked with David Cadwallader of Cadwallader Design in Dallas on the home’s design.

The home’s center is focused around the main entry, which features meticulously designed walls clad in Indiana limestone supplied by 3D Stone, Inc. in Bloomington, Indiana. While the home embraces an open floor plan, parallel core walls define the foyer, kitchen, dining, and living rooms.

The initial work done on the limestone-clad walls did not meet expectations. This is when Dee Brown, Inc., a stone installer in Richardson, Texas, was contacted. “The most insurmountable issue appeared in the most critical area, being the entry wall cladding that we first attempted to fabricate using individual stone slabs,” Domiteaux explained. “Despite the best efforts, the design was not executable in a traditional stacked masonry configuration. We then turned to Dee Brown for their expertise. Through that collaboration, we all agreed that the only logical way forward was to fabricate precision-machined limestone wall panels.”

In late March 2018, David Unger, a 21-year Dee Brown veteran who currently serves as the Dallas plant manager, and foreman William Carter worked on the new design to completely revamp the look of the interior walls and provide the homeowner with what was originally envisioned. Robert Harris, a 23-year Dee Brown veteran who works in the special project division, was in charge of ordering the new stone from 3D Stone, Inc.

“The existing wall was cut limestone brick,” Carter said. “You had so many different colors—darker and lighter pieces—and it wasn’t uniform. They tried to miter the ends and patch the miters. It was essentially a brick layer doing a stone job. It wasn’t as uniform as the homeowners wanted. Dave Unger did most of the designing. He was the brains of the operation.”

“There was a lot of chippage,” said Unger, who was named the 2017 Natural Stone Craftsman of the Year by the Natural Stone Institute. “We determined it wasn’t going to have the appearance they wanted. There was literally no variation in a 60-foot-long wall.”

Indiana buff limestone in the select grade was specified for the new wall design. The color varies from a light cream shade to a brownish buff, while the “Select” grade refers to the fine-to average-grained stone having a controlled minimum of “other natural characteristics” and veining. Other natural characteristics include a few distinguishable calcite streaks or spots, fossils, pit holes, open texture streaks, honeycomb formations, iron spots, travertine-like designs, and grain changes, according to 3D Stone.

“We supplied Dee Brown with 35 pieces for a total of 274 cubic feet for this project,” said Logan Sylvester, sales, shipping, and estimating manager at 3D Stone. “Dee Brown then cut the panels to fit for an interior veneer in the main entryway.”

The limestone was fabricated with unique, continuous horizontal grooves for all of the walls. “All stone options were considered before reaching a consensus on using Indiana limestone,” Domiteaux said. “The coloration, density, durability, and workability inherent to this limestone outweighed all other stone material choices.”

Harris ordered the material to Dee Brown’s Dallas facility, where special care was taken during the fabrication process to hold tight tolerances to the horizontal grooves, as well as the typical cut-to-size aspects. “Dave designed the stone to where we could make the joints disappear and lined everything up where it looked more like a solid slab,” Carter said.

“The pieces we used have between eight and ten courses of the stone in a single block of the stone,” Unger said. “It was basically like watch work. There was also some handwork to touch it up. We do a lot of work that is very finicky and meticulous. I let the guys know there was a zero tolerance and it worked very well. We have a good crew.”

While Unger devised the design, Carter was in charge of assembling the crew to complete the installation, which included himself, Unger, and one of their best installers, Pablo Lopez. “He’s a craftsman. We get compliments on every job he does,” Carter said. “He, Dave, and I went over there on June 6, 2018, and started laying walls out and coursing it up. At first, it hit the ceiling, but we figured it out.”

“The ceiling was a little bit out of level, so we had to adjust the joints a couple of feet down the walls,” Unger said.

Domiteaux designed the cladding system that was used to adhere the limestone panels to the walls, according to Carter. “It was 4-inch-thick limestone and we put false joints in it,” he said.

Domiteaux was also onsite throughout the duration of the stone installation to ensure everything went according to plan, coordinating with the fabricators constantly. “The focus was uniformity of stone coloration, perfection of the machined panels without chipping and damage, alignment and spacing of joints, coloration of the grout utilized and protective sealing of the surfaces without changing the coloration,” he said.

Since the walls were prefabricated at Dee Brown’s shop, the installation team had to carefully transport the material into the home once it arrived onsite. “Getting the slabs up the house was interesting,” Carter said. “We had steps to go up on the exterior, so they put together a trolley system. We also used a pump jack to set the stone. It was quite an operation.”

In addition to designing the walls, Unger was also tasked with creating special stone finishes in the half-bath using a $10,000 slab of 3-cm-thick natural white quartz, a semi-precious stone from Madagascar, which was supplied by The Stone Collection in Dallas. “The slab was transformed into a lavatory top/bowl assembly, water closet wall cladding, and even tissue and towel holders,” Unger said. “We created a stone look that looks like velvet.”

The installation was completed in around five months. “Ripping down the old work was a challenge in itself because everything was finished inside of the house when we got there,” Carter said. “The guys did such a good job covering stuff up and making sure everything was good. The superintendent, Gabe [from BufordHawthorne Builders], made it easier for us. It’s always good to have a good general contractor.”

Since the home’s completion in late 2018, it has received a 2019 Pinnacle Award of Excellence in the Residential Single Family category from the Natural Stone Institute and has been well-received by the homeowners and their visitors.

“The level of detailing, craftsmanship, and design achieved is a constant source of amazement and appreciation by those experiencing this home for the first time,” Domiteaux said.

TAGS: case study residential interior inspire heather fiore

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Note: This article is part of a series about American quarries. If you work for a quarry that’s a member of the Natural Stone Institute and you’d like your quarry to be featured here, contact Karin Kirk. Thank you!

Natural stone is a two-part collaboration. First, the stone is forged by forces of nature. Ancient sea life, adrift in a long-vanished ocean, settled to the seafloor, gradually becoming fused into solid rock from the radiant warmth of the planet. That part of the story is well documented by geology.

But what’s often overlooked is the intensity of human labor required to heft the stone out of the ground and shape it into something useful. These efforts allow the stone to emerge from the earth and attain a second life: as a building stone, monument, fireplace hearth, or garden wall. We celebrate natural materials not only because of nature, but also with gratitude for the human effort that transforms them.

Mike Hester has worked with stone his whole life. He grew up near a limestone quarry in Russellville, Alabama. “I’ve known about it since I was 5 years old,” he says of the quarry. His father worked at the quarry. His grandfather worked there, too.

The quarry opened in 1884 as the Rockwood Limestone Company, and in 1956 quarrying moved underground. “It was drills, it was loud, dusty.” Hester recalls that his grandfather would come home from work “just solid white” from limestone dust.

Hester describes how the chronic exposure to noise took its toll on his grandfather’s hearing: “In his later years, he didn’t hear a thing.”

Emergence of organized labor

The Journeyman Stonecutters Association of North America was founded in 1853. It’s the oldest active labor union in the United States. At the time the union was chartered, stone carvers were among the highest paid of the building trades, earning wages similar to doctors and lawyers.

By organizing into a union, stonecutters were able to leverage their skills to garner workplace protections that are now, thankfully, commonplace. In 1867, stonecutters were the first trade to secure an 8-hour workday, a full 20 years before the practice became widespread.

One hundred years later, the role of organized workers was still evident. In 1963, laborers at the Rockwood quarry went on strike over a pay raise of 4 cents per hour. In protest, the quarrymen leveraged their industrial know-how, repurposing dynamite normally used in the quarry to blow up the administrative offices. The incident was a not-so-subtle reminder to stay on the good side of people who wield explosives in their daily work.

Thanks in part to labor laws, environmental laws, and unions, American quarries have gradually become less dangerous workplaces with better pay and benefits. Even today, improvements in safety and technology continue to make the natural stone industry less perilous and more productive.

Hester explains that in 1980s and 90s, quarrying switched to diamond belt saws. “That got rid of the dust and the noise but brought in the water and the mud,” he says. Despite the updated methods, “there was still a lot of physical labor. Still sledgehammers; still blasting.”

In 1997, Vetter Stone, a limestone quarrier based in Mankato, Minnesota, bought the business, ushering in a wave of change at the Alabama quarry.

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Culture shift

“They put money into this place,” says Tracye Harrison, Alabama Stone’s General Manager. “It was so run down when they bought it. It was in really bad shape.” Harrison is a 32-year veteran of the stone industry, and she was hired not long after Vetter Stone took the reins of the Alabama quarry.

The first order of business was improving the safety of the operations. “They took on that right at the get-go,” says Hester. “There was no safety going on”

“Zero,” adds Harrison.

Adopting new practices at the quarry was a long play. Harrison recalls that it wasn’t even clear how they were supposed to meet safety standards. Harrison hired Audrey Marsh as her right-hand woman, and the two of them navigated the tricky waters of transforming the company. Hester admires the way the leadership team tackled the change: “Tracye and Audrey, they really stepped it up.”

Harrison, Hester, and Marsh are all quick to praise MSHA (Mine Safety and Health Administration) for helping them build a better program.

“Thank goodness they [MSHA and OSHA] were really understanding and worked with us, because this stuff just wasn’t being done,” Harrison says. “It’s amazing that they helped us the way they did.”

The relationship between the quarry and the government agency could have become an adversarial one, but instead it was a valuable collaboration with the workers’ best interests at the front of their minds. “They just helped us get everything fixed like it needed to be,” says Harrison with a sense of appreciation.

Re-thinking workplace practices requires more than just a directive from above. A new culture needed to be infused throughout the operation. Marsh admits it was major cultural shift to get “the guys” to change their ways beyond the bare minimum. “Hard hats and steel toed shoes was about it for safety,” she recalls.

“Tracye and Audrey and the Vetters themselves, they made safety the top priority, and everybody caught on. It was definitely a culture change,” says Hester. “It took a little while, but now safety is the top priority.”

The proof is in the pudding. The quarry had two inspections the week prior to our conversation. With evident pride, Hester reports: “One inspector said it was the safest quarry he’d ever been in.”

“We’re like one big family”

Vetter’s Alabama Stone operation employs 40 to 50 people; it sits a few miles outside Russellville, a small city of nearly 10,000 people in northwestern Alabama’s verdant rolling hills.

The company is divided into the underground quarry, the production mill, and the offices. “We’re like one big family,” says Hester. The underground quarry operates with a tight-knit staff of 10 to 12 quarriers. Hester continues, “there’s hardly any turnover whatsoever. They enjoy their work and they’re proud of it.”

Harrison is pleased with the improvements that Vetter Stone has brought to the Alabama quarry. “They keep building it up and building it up,” she says. Higher pay and better benefits help the company retain employees. “They’re by far the best owners that have ever been here,” she says.

Hester points out how investments in equipment have made the job less strenuous. “In 2004 we got Fantini chainsaws with carbide bits. That got rid of the dust, water, mud, and blasting. It’s more mental work now. There’s very little physical work now,” he says.

But the pride in workmanship remains unchanged. Hester recounts an anecdote from a quarrier named Nicolette. After cutting a block and pulling it away from the quarry wall, she walked across the newly exposed section of rock that hasn’t seen the light of day since the Mississippian Period. “That’s the first step that someone has ever made, right there,” says Hester, smiling. “That’s pretty cool.”

Harrison praises Nicolette, showing a glimpse of the teamwork that makes her employee team so loyal: “She likes to do her own maintenance. She likes to just prove that she can do it. She does a really good job.”

Limestone shoals

The Federal courthouse in Mobile is clad with Alabama Stone’s signature white limestone.

Wisps of silvery grey lend a sense of character and movement to the stately architecture. Upon closer inspection, the layering is rhythmic and directional, capturing the waves and currents of a coral sand beach, as if sandbars had once migrated right down Joseph Street.

The observation turns out to be almost plausible. The Alabama Stone quarry taps into the Bangor Limestone, a 330-million-year-old remnant of an environment similar to today’s Bahama Bank—a shallow, tropical sea. During that time in geologic history, the northern portion of the state was part of an inland seaway

One of the hallmarks of Alabama Stone is its oolitic texture. Ooids are small, rounded pellets of limestone that are formed when waves slosh particles back and forth in lime-rich seawater. As underwater currents roll the grains around, they become coated in calcium carbonate. The more they roll around, the more layers get added. A magnified cross-section of an ooid reveals an internal structure made of thin, concentric layers.

Ooid sand resembles a collection of small white beads: rounded, glossy, and uniform in shape and size. The same currents that jostled the pellets across the sea floor also piled them up into ripples and shoals, making a cross-bedded pattern in the stone. Cross beds are gracefully curved, pointing in the direction that the water once flowed. A keen-eyed observer can put her finger on a single, individual ripple of sediment; a passing tide from millennia ago, frozen in time.

Projects near and far

Business is brisk at the quarry, with blocks coming out of the ground from April through October, and fabrication humming along year-round. “It’s crazy busy right now and it seems to be holding steady” says Harrison, noting that the Covid pandemic hasn’t diminished demand. “This whole year has been busy,” she says.

The stone is in demand for projects near and far. “New York City’s got buildings everywhere with this stone on it,” says Harrison, noting that Washington D.C. and Canada are common destinations for Alabama Stone. “We ship all over,” she says.

Most of the work is for custom commercial projects such as universities, banks, courthouses, offices, medical campuses. And on the smaller scale, “today a guy picked up a one-piece hearth for his residence,” notes Harrison. “So we do that, too.”

The stone earns LEED credit for locally sourced material when used within a 100-mile radius of the quarry, and old-fashioned local pride boosts the popularity of the product. “A lot of people want to use us because we’re in Alabama,” says Harrison. “The University of Alabama uses us over and over.”

There’s also a practical reason that architects prefer a domestic product. “When you’re dealing with an overseas stone if you have any sort of problem, you’re six weeks out from a replacement stone,” explains Harrison. “Little things become real big things if it’s holding up a job.”

Female stewardship

Harrison made her foray into the stone industry as a draftsperson, producing detailed drawings for each piece of stone. For custom work, every piece of stone has its own pattern and particular dimensions.  “It’s like a jigsaw puzzle,” Marsh says. “You have to get all the pieces to fit just right.”

Harrison brushed off the notion that she’s a female pioneer in a male-dominated industry. “Oh I don’t know,” she says with a sigh. But she admits that she appreciates her leadership role a bit more as she gets older and reflects on her career. At the outset, though, “I was just trying to make a living,” she says.

Last year, Harrison was featured by the Natural Stone Institute’s Women in Stone program that offers mentoring, resources, and events for women who work in the stone industry. Harrison doesn’t feel that her gender influenced her path one way or another.

But Harrison’s work speaks for itself, both in terms of the bustling quarry and its productive workforce. Hester is quick to point out what makes Harrison a capable leader: “Tracye is fair to everyone, she hears everyone. When she took over, she demanded that culture change to make it safer and a better place to work. And now we’re reaping the benefits of it. It’s a great place to work. It’s safe. Everybody feels at home. As far as I’ve ever heard, everybody respects her.”

A warm smile spreads across Harrison’s face as she listens to Hester. The sense of appreciation and trust among the three managers is palpable. Between them they have 70 years of experience, and it’s clear they feel a sense of satisfaction in their efforts to make the job better and safer for everyone.

Marsh articulates her pride in the company and her role in shaping it: “It really makes me pleased, when you go somewhere and you see the stone and you think, that came from Russellville. That came from where I work. That makes you feel good. To know that it came from us!”

More from the American Stones Series

Note: This article is part of a series about American quarries. If you work for a quarry that’s a member of the Natural Stone Institute and you’d like your quarry to be featured here, contact Karin Kirk. Thank you!

The Earth is nature’s ultimate hardware store. It gives us building materials in the form of stone and gravel, stores of underground water, deposits of oil and gas, and minerals for all kinds of uses. In certain parts of Texas, all these resources can be found in the same place.

TexaStone Quarries operates in the Permian Basin of West Texas, a region best known for producing massive quantities of oil and gas. But the TexaStone business model is far more stable than that of the fossil fuel industry. Quarrying began before derricks and pump jacks dotted the landscape, and while the fossil fuel industry suffered major losses through 2020, the quarries soldiered on.

TexaStone’s limestone slabs and blocks are enduring, non-polluting resources that don’t suffer the boom-and-bust cycle of their neighboring industry. While hydrocarbons burn brightly for a short time, a solid slab of natural stone serves its purpose for decades. At the completion of its useful life, natural stone can return to the earth, leaving no toxins in its wake and no legacy of greenhouse gases lingering behind.

‘A broom and a hose’

TexaStone’s first quarries were opened in 1990 and were cut into shelves of limestone that naturally sit right at ground level. All it takes to access the uppermost layer of limestone is “a broom and a hose,” says Vince Gray, the Production Manager at the quarry.

The prospects began modestly, “with one saw up on top of the hill, out in the open,” recalls Gray. Operations gradually expanded and TexaStone Quarries officially became an entity in 1995, and their infrastructure, equipment, and capabilities have been growing ever since. The company is owned by Brenda Edwards, who started the business with her late husband.

TexaStone taps into 16 individual quarry pits to produce six different varieties of limestone. A 55,000 square-foot fabrication shop sits on the property, equipped with state-of-the art machinery. A workforce of 32 people keeps the quarries, the mill, and the office humming along.

Stone gets shipped all over the country “and internationally as well,” says Quade Weaver, the Sales and Project Manager. Weaver credits the company’s expansion on their collaboration with architects, masonry contractors, and design firms. “We developed relationships over time,” he says. “We had architectural firms that would use the material over and over, and it became more and more visible.”

Natural stone has an environmental advantage over manmade competitors

“We compete with a lot of manmade products,” says Weaver, echoing a trend seen throughout the stone industry. The biggest competitor to TexaStone is concrete ‘cast stone,’ “It’s something that we compete with on a daily basis,” says Weaver. Although concrete is usually cheaper at the front-end of a project, Weaver appreciates that “longevity and sustainability” are major advantages of natural stone.

Weaver distinguishes natural stone from the imposters by making the case for the smaller environmental footprint of natural stone. “That’s a driving factor for us to promote that natural material and what we’re doing to quarry it,” he says.

Concrete production accounts for a whopping 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Concrete is made by heating up ground limestone; the process to heat the limestone is energy-intensive, and then further CO2 is released when the limestone breaks apart via chemical reactions. By contrast, a slab of limestone is already completely formed by natural processes, and limestone is a natural store of CO2. As the world strives to lower greenhouse gas emissions, it makes sense to keep CO2 locked up inside stone and out of the atmosphere.

Platinum Sustainability Certification

Sustainability has been a steady focus of the company, and TexaStone was the first operation to become certified to the Natural Stone Sustainability Standard (ANSI 373). In 2014 the quarry attained gold-level sustainability and the fabrication facility scored a silver-level ranking. The company has continued to improve their practices, and in 2020 they garnered platinum-level certification for both the quarrying and the fabrication processes.

“Actually, we were pretty well within the standard before the standard was written,” says Gray, noting that their initial effort was primarily one of measuring and tracking water consumption, energy usage, and waste output. The ability to track their environmental performance showed where more improvements were possible, and the company’s baseline certification set the stage for further efficiency.

“We continually monitor our water usage and electricity,” says Weaver. “As you shrink that, that’s what allowed us to jump up to that next level.”

Part of the sustainability standard is transparent communication to the community, and the TexaStone website shows the company’s environmental performance over the past 5 years. Their goal is to reduce energy consumption by 5% each year over the next five years.

TexaStone shares their environmental performance on their website. The company was able to reduce energy use by switching to efficient lighting and by minimizing idling time for equipment.

Water is a scarce resource in West Texas, and the operation uses 80% recycled water in the quarry and 93% recycled water in the fabrication plant. Water is treated in 1-acre settling pond located on the property. Limestone mud settles to the bottom, and clear water accumulates on top, which is then pumped back to the plant. The leftover ‘sludge’ is an inert slurry of lime mud and water, not unlike the material at the bottom of the seafloor when the limestone originally formed. The company uses some of the slurry for road base and berms, and it can also be used as backfill. It’s the primary waste product of the facility.

The company was able to lower its energy use by “reducing idle time on all of our machinery, whether gasoline or diesel,” says Gray. That accounted for most of the company’s energy savings, while also saving money on fuel and wear and tear on engines.

“Those were the two biggest things that took us up to platinum,” says Gray.

Gray describes other improvements: New, efficient lighting was installed throughout the fabrication shop, and office paper is shredded and used as packing material.

The quarries are surrounded by oil and gas wells, but across the road dozens of wind turbines churn in the steady breeze, another nod to a changing economy that’s branching out from the volatile swings of the oil and gas industry. Texas is by far the largest producer of wind energy in the USA.

Oil and gas wells tap into deep shales and limestones, while TexaStone quarries younger limestones near the ground surface. Wind turbines rise above it all, turning moving air into electricity.

High-quality workmanship

The TexaStone property is about 12 miles long and contains 16 small to medium-sized quarry pits that vary in depth from 10 to 20 feet deep. In the larger quarries, “there’s a natural seam exactly where we’re cutting,” says Gray, “so it really makes it nice.”

Across the property, the geology varies enough to produce an array of colors and textures, and the company sells six varieties of limestone. The two most popular colors are Hadrian, a fossil-rich stone with a neutral tan color, and Cedar Hill Cream, an evenly-patterned limestone with warm tones of pale yellow. The other four colors are quarried a few months at a time to build up a supply that will last a year or more. TexaStone Pink is one of the more unusual offerings; it’s a fossil-laden, pastel pink stone. “As far as we know, this is the only place you can find it domestically,” says Weaver.

While their neighbors are wildcatting for pockets of oil and gas, the TexaStone drill rig sniffs out new varieties of limestone. Some of their explorations have panned out, and others haven’t. Gray describes the results of exploratory drilling as “sometimes exciting, sometimes disappointing!”

Four of the TexaStone varieties have been tested to withstand repeated freeze-thaw cycles and are most commonly used as exterior cladding. These are Cedar Hill Cream, Hadrian, Permian Sea Coral, and Texas Pearl.

“Our workforce is something to really be proud of,” Gray muses, as he recalls the improvements over his 14-year tenure at TexaStone. Modern machinery, less physical labor, and continually improving craftsmanship have been the highlights of the company’s evolution. Thanks to technologies like CNC machining, “we can take a 3D scan and a 5-axis machine can carve whatever that scan shows,” says Gray.

“The workmanship is high quality,” he says. “I hate to toot our own horn too much, but we do very nice work.”

A Cretaceous beach day

The pandemic kept many of us home through 2020, which led to a surge in residential projects. And what better way to spend a hot Texas summer than by the poolside. “The pandemic seems like it caused an increase of people putting pools in,” says Weaver.

A swimming pool surrounded with fossil-laden limestone on a sweltering midsummer afternoon might be a reasonable analog to the time when the TexaStone limestones formed. They’re around 125 million years old, from the Cretaceous Period – famous for dinosaurs, a hot climate, and seawater lapping up onto Texas.

Texas has had an on-again, off-again relationship with the ocean throughout most of its history. During Cretaceous time, North America was drifting away from Europe and Africa. The Gulf of Mexico had been attached to western Africa, and as the continents pulled apart, the Atlantic Ocean was born as seas filled the growing rift between the continents.

A continental shelf called the Comanche Shelf formed in West Texas, marking the edge of the widening ocean. Seas advanced over Texas, but they did so in pulses. The region went through alternating periods of dry land, tidal flats, and open water.

TexaStone limestones were formed during a time when a shallow ocean covered the area, and the characteristics of the rocks and fossils indicate that the water was relatively shallow and wave-agitated.

Fossils include oysters and reef-building organisms called rudists which anchored to the seafloor. Coiled shells of ammonites are present; these creatures swam through the seas and fed on plankton floating in the seawater. Ammonites went extinct along with the dinosaurs, but their relatives live on as squid, octopus, and cuttlefish.

Incidentally, these limestone layers are much younger than the rocks that contain oil and gas. The TexaStone quarries are right at ground level while oil and gas wells tap into deeper, Permian-age rocks that formed more than 100 million years before the TexaStone rocks came into existence.

2021 ‘looks bright’

Garden City and the surrounding communities benefitted from their sparse population by avoiding the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic. “The county hasn’t had many cases,” says Weaver. “We haven’t really skipped much of a beat here.”

Gray notes the increased safety and sanitation practices at the company: “Everybody’s washing their hands; everybody’s got a mask on.”

The pandemic caused a slowdown of new projects in the pipeline during 2020, which reduced the company’s slate of upcoming work. “That was a little concerning” says Weaver, “but things seem to be easing up now and I’m seeing more new designs.”

“There seems to be more interest in domestic materials, which is very exciting,” Weaver says.” From a sales standpoint, it looks good. Things are opening up.”

Weaver expects 2021 will be a year of recovery. “Even though the oil industry is down, construction is still pretty strong in Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio,” he says. “It looks bright.”

More from the American Stones Series

Note: This article is part of a series about American quarries. If you work for a quarry that’s a member of the Natural Stone Institute and you’d like your quarry to be featured here, contact Karin Kirk. Thank you!

Limestone bluffs are a familiar sight across southern Minnesota; stacks of tan, layered rocks standing proud above riverbanks, or punctuating the rolling prairie along highway roadcuts. Geologists, always happy to embark on mental time-travel, recognize these limestones as the remnants of a warm, watery world. The rock’s ubiquity illustrates that these limestones are part of a continuous blanket of stone, painting the image of an expansive tropical sea, stretching for hundreds of miles across the region.

It can be hard to imagine how that could be possible, given that Minnesota is nowhere near a coastline and is presently a pretty chilly place. But 450 million years ago, you’d barely recognize the Midwest, nor any part of the United States, for that matter.

At that time, the North American continent was just south of the equator and most of it was underwater. It’s a bit of a mind-bender to grapple with the idea of North America sitting below the equator. Throughout geologic time, the continents have constantly been rearranging themselves, thanks to plate tectonics. During the early Ordovician Period, the overall climate was warmer than today’s and there were no glaciers or ice caps. Because no ice was stored on land, sea level was hundreds of feet higher than it is now.

Minnesota in the Ordovician was similar to the Gulf of Mexico today. Over a thousand feet of limestone, sandstone, and shale were laid down across the northern Midwest, with each layer telling the story of a particular environment.  Sandy layers are the signature of dunes, beaches, or shallow shoals. Limestones formed in deeper waters where calcite and dolomite settled out of seawater.

This assortment of marine sediments is called the Prairie du Chien formation, and it stretches from Minnesota through Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin. “Kasota stone” is a nickname for the Oneota Dolomite, a dolomitic limestone layer within the Prairie du Chien formation. Amid all the other layers left behind by the retreating sea, this one is particularly useful due to its higher magnesium content, making it more resistant to weathering compared to a typical limestone. Kasota stone was first quarried in 1858 and soon the limestone’s recognizable hues of cream, buff, and light grey began to appear on buildings, stone walls, and walkways across southern Minnesota.

A family rooted in stone

The origins of the Vetter Stone company may not trace quite as far back as the Ordovician Period, but the company has deep family roots in the stone industry.

Paul J. Vetter, Sr. came from generations of stone cutters in Germany. Paul’s father emigrated from Germany to Minnesota in the late 1800s and owned a monument shop. Continuing the family tradition, Paul made his career working at a stone company in Kasota. In 1954, just before his retirement, Paul sunk his life savings into a quarry of his own. He bought land and began investing in machinery as his savings would allow. These were the seeds of the company which today spans two operations, employs 130 people, and exports stone around the world. To this day, the company is largely guided by the Vetter family.

Donn Vetter is Paul’s grandson and Quarry Manager at Vetter Stone, and he’s grateful for his grandfather’s foresight. “He had four sons, so he figured someday if they wanted to get into the stone business, they were set up already,” recalls Donn. “He decided if the boys wanted to join him, they sure could, and all four of them did.”

Donn’s father Howard was one of those four boys, and “one by one the brothers got bought out, and it ended up with my dad,” says Donn. Howard Vetter ran the company until 2000, then passed the torch to the next generation. Howard’s six children all stayed in the family business. “At one time we all worked here. All at the same time,” says Donn.

Donn and three of his siblings remain active within the company today. Bob Vetter is a drafter and engineer; Mary Vetter Benedict is an estimator, and Ron Vetter is CEO.

“There’s a lot of synergy,” Donn says fondly. “It’s a lot better when we’re all here than when somebody’s missing.”

Southern Minnesota’s signature stone

Vetter limestone clads landmark buildings throughout the region, including the 57-story, art deco Wells Fargo Center, the Minnesota Senate building, and the University of St. Thomas. Target Field, home to the Minnesota Twins, may be the most iconic use of Vetter Stone. Built in 2010, it “used every color we have, and all different types of finishes inside,” says Ben Kaus, President of Vetter Stone. “It’s beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.”

“We’ve got good relationships all across Minnesota,” says Ben. “We’re able to handle each job uniquely. Truly every order is different and independent. It makes it very fun.”

The most common use of Vetter’s Minnesota limestone is exterior cladding, but the stone also finds its way indoors, as flooring, fireplaces, backsplashes, and accent walls. In the landscape, Vetter limestone is used for paving, patios, pool coping, seating, and stone walls. The stone is equally suited for homespun DIY efforts, expansive commercial installations, and everything in between.

Ben stresses the importance of local connections that have made the stone so recognizable. “All the families that have stayed in southern Minnesota have known Vetter Stone,” he says. “They know the quality of it, and they know the family behind it.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has slowed some larger projects while opening the door to more residential work. Ben explains that over the summer they did “more back yards and more interior projects.” Although the residential work was smaller in scope compared to Vetter’s typical work, the volume was larger, so Ben estimates their total workload increased slightly compared to last year.

The company welcomes personal involvement from homeowners. “Our doors are open for tours. We love to have visitors,” says Ben, explaining that people are naturally curious to learn more about the stone and the quarry. Regardless of the scope of the project, “we’re more than happy to spend the time with them,” he says.

The majority of Vetter’s business is in the Midwest, but Ben points out, “we have projects all over the U.S. and actually we have a lot of international projects, too.” Vetter Stone is on American embassy buildings in Moscow and Oman, and the company has multiple projects in Japan. Ben explains that the international partnerships came about as a result of developing relationships with American architects who were involved with overseas projects.

A clean and efficient business plan

The straightforward geology of Kasota stone lends itself to a simple and streamlined operation. The limestone strata are horizontal and near the surface. “It comes out in layers,” says Donn, and the layers tend to be around 2 to 5 feet thick. “They have natural seams in them so we don’t have to bottom-cut,” says Donn.

Donn and his crew drill core samples from the undeveloped parts of the quarry so they can follow the best areas of the formation. They formulate a specific quarry plan for each quarrying season, which runs from April to October.

Colors range from cream to buff to pink, explains Donn, “and then there’s many shades of those colors within all the ledges.”

The fabrication facility sits on the same 500-acre property as the quarry. “Every week we bring blocks up to the plant,” says Donn. The 80,000 square-foot facility is 600 feet long, “so it’s the natural progress from big blocks on one end to finishing on the other end,” he says.

Production can be as simple as making a flat panel, or as detailed as an intricate edge profile for a complex project. Fabrication takes shape through a combination of a skilled workforce, specialized equipment, and the all-important human touch. “We have five people that work with their hands in the finishing department, cleaning up what’s left by the saw blade.” Ben mimics the polishing work with his hands while explaining, “Smoothing it out so it’s got a really nice hone and smoothness to it.”

Donn explains that in the final product the tolerance is plus or minus 1 millimeter. Both men take evident pride in the high quality of the workmanship. “Our customers expect it from us,” says Ben.

‘Don’t mess it up now, Ben!’

Ben became Vetter Stone’s president in August 2019, overseeing operations in the company’s quarries in both Minnesota and Alabama. He’s the first president who’s not a Vetter, and he readily admits that being an outsider was intimidating. “When I was hired six years ago that definitely was on my mid quite a bit,” he says. “I wasn’t sure what I was getting myself into.”

Donn underscores the point, “That’s a big deal for the family, to have a switch after three generations and 66 years.”

“Don’t mess it up now, Ben!” Donn jokes good-naturedly, as both enjoy a laugh.

We don’t have a big corporation to fall back on,” says Ben. “We have to continue to pay attention to all the details of the company.”

But Ben appears to be more than capable of paying attention. After several years of stability, Vetter Stone is currently in what Ben describes as “growth mode.” He ticks through the changes throughout the company: “We’ve found ways to be able to increase our capacity. We’re getting more efficient in the quarry. We’re getting more stone out of the ground.”

An increase in quarrying needs to be matched on the production line, so Ben continues: “We also hired new talent and on the fabrication side of things we’ve invested more in newer equipment that improves our accuracy and our capacity.”

And of course, all of this is contingent upon growing sales, too. “We’ve become more aggressive in growing more relationships with more architects. And we can handle that capacity,” he says.

Ben is quick to point out that the success of the company relies on their workforce. “Employees really buy into that and they work really hard,” he says. “It’s cool to see it all come together.”

“We do everything we can to make sure they have a good work environment and we give back to them as much as we can,” says Ben. “Our employee retention is one thing I’m really proud of.”

Poised to continue the legacy

Throughout the evolution of the company, two things have always been in plentiful supply at Vetter Stone: stone and Vetters. And both are here to stay.

Donn estimates there’s 200 years of limestone remaining to be quarried, and he has eight children.

“There’s definitely going to be another generation coming up,” says Ben, nodding. “Oh yeah, for sure.”

Donn adds, “There’s 20 grandkids in the next generation, so…”

Ben steps in, “We’ll find a few that want to stay involved.”

“You’d think so!” echoes Donn with a laugh.

While many unknowns may lie ahead, the company and the family are ready for the next chapters.

More from the American Stones Series