News

The 2018 Progressive Architecture Awards were published by Architect Magazine this week.  Shout out to Quarra’s visionary collaborators including:

 

Howeler + Yoon Architecture for the Float Lab

 

Young Projects for the Glitch House

 

WOJR for the House of Horns 

 

Click here to see the full article 

 

 

Stone: Jim Durham
Rock Climbing
by Cliff Gayley, FAIA
Principal at William Rawn Associates, Architects.

Recalling our climb to the top of Zervreilahorn, the 9,500-foot peak overlooking the Vals quarry in the Swiss Alps, I appreciate what makes Jim Durham of Quarra Stone a unique force in the world. A stone supplier without a quarry and no particular stone to market, Durham combs the globe for new variations and sources. He is a consultant who can do as well as teach, a fabricator with a forte for computerized cutting and shaping. Exuberant and thoughtful, curious and proactive, he is focused on listening to and acting on the goals of architects who seek him out. “I think stone is different from other materials,” he says, “because it is more of a place; it is a holder of meaning and of history.”

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“What Happens When Architects Design Furniture?”: A question explored by two furniture exhibitions displayed simultaneously at Friedman Benda Gallery in New York. The piece to keep an eye out for is the Heavy Rocker, Designed by Leong Leong. It’s fabricated from a piece of solid gneiss and is paired with a perforated steel counterpart fabricated by Zahner.

https://www.vogue.com/article/when-architects-design-furniture-two-new-exhibitions

Quarra Stone Company is seeking to hire 8-10 talented individuals to join our production team. Quarra is a national leader in Digital, CNC and Robotic Stone fabrication. We work with leading architects, artists, industrial designers and masons to execute exceptional work in natural stone. Please send inquiries to amarshall@quarrastone.com or call us at 608.246.8803 to set up an interview.

 

Project Manager

Project management of active stone projects in the design, architecture, art or construction industry.  Project responsibilities include scheduling, direct communication with customers and industry professionals, preparation of change orders, RFI’s, shop drawing submittal packages, among other responsibilities. 2-3 Years of experience minimum, with strong communication skills, and a bachelor’s degree in project management or equivalent proven industry experience.

 

Estimator

Construction estimating for stone projects of a variety of sizes in the art, architecture, construction and design markets. This individual must have 1-2 years of experience in estimating and will be trained on the job to use QSC’s estimating methods and procedures.

 

CNC Bridge Saw Machine Operator

Operation of a Hensel 567 Bridge Saw for Cutting Stone Panels and Shapes. CNC Training Required. A successful candidate must demonstrate previous experience with CNC machine operation. On the Job Training for this particular Saw will be provided.

 

Shipping + Receiving  

Palletizing, Wrapping and Labeling of finished product in preparation for national shipment via Dedicated Semi-Truck. Must be familiar with building custom pallets and crates, operation of a nail gun, chop saw and basic construction tools.  Forklift Operation, Construction Experience, Computer Skills and Good Organizational Skills Preferred. (Forklift Certification Provided by QSC)

 

Machine Operator (Finishing and Slotting)

Operation of basic manual machinery for honing and polishing stone slabs and operation of stone slotting machine for edge slots. On the Job training will be provided for specific machines. Knowledge of Stone, Wood or Metal finishing required. (Forklift Certification Provided by QSC)

 

Block Saw Operator

Assist Daily Slab Cutting operations with our 11.5’ Diameter Block Saw. Previous Experience with Operation of Heavy Forklift and End Loader preferred. Construction Experience and Material Handling Experience Required. (Forklift Certification Provided by QSC)

 

Second Shift Supervisor

Second Shift Position (3PM – 11PM). Shift Supervisor will be required to execute the second shift work-plan and coordinate with the First Shift Supervisors for work-plan assignment. This is a supervisory role and requires past experience as a shift supervisor, shop supervisor or foreman. This position requires excellent personnel management skills, leadership abilities and willingness to excel and meet finite deadlines in a fast paced manufacturing environment. (Forklift Certification Provided by QSC)

 

Second Shift CNC Bridge Saw Operator

Second Shift Position (3PM – 11PM). Operation of a Hensel 567 Bridge Saw for Cutting Stone Panels and Shapes. CNC Training Required. A successful candidate must demonstrate previous experience with CNC machine operation. On the Job Training for this particular Machine will be provided.  (Forklift Certification Provided by QSC)

 

Second Shift CNC Machine Operator

Second Shift Position (3PM – 11PM). Operation of a Prussiani CNC Machine for Milling and Cutting Stone Panels and Shapes. CNC Training Required. A successful candidate must demonstrate previous experience with CNC machine operation. On the Job Training for this particular Machine will be provided.

 

Second Shift Machine Operator (Finishing + Slotting)

Second Shift Position (3PM – 11PM). Operation of basic manual machinery for honing and polishing stone slabs and operation of stone slotting machine for edge slots. On the Job training will be required. Knowledge of Wood or Metal finishing preferred.

Look out for the enlightened research of Ines and Shan is the Fabrication 2017 book, pages 106-113.  Link to digital copy of the book below:

http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1546589/1/Fabricate.pdf

 

The more the merrier!  Join Quarra Stone Company and WOJR in celebrating the debut of the Other Masks exhibition at the gallery BALTS Projects in Zurich, Switzerland.  6:00 pm.

The body of work shown in the exhibition, Other Masks, stems from an ongoing project entitled Mask House, which offers a grieving man a hidden space of refuge in the woods. Included in the exhibition is a range of artifacts that explore the periphery of architectural representation; while orthographic drawings and a scale model provide the work with an architectural center of gravity, pieces such as a stone bas-relief and seven sculptural masks engage the overlapping domain of art.

Other Masks situates the artifact of the mask within the context of the discipline of architecture. An artifact is an object of intrigue that elicits close readings and analyses, which in turn may reveal evidence of its culture and its use. A close reading of an artifact involves examination of all of its physical characteristics, including its figural, structural, material, and decorative features. This study is done not only with the aim of identifying the cultural significance of the particular object, but also with the broader aspiration of understanding the rituals and values of the users of the object, and those of its makers. The most curious of artifacts are those whose features invoke multiple, competing interpretations of their cultural significance.

For WOJR, the making of architecture is the making of artifacts. To think about the design of a work of architecture as such is to regard the acts of making form and reading form as simultaneous and inseparable. Being attuned to architecture in this particular way has lead to a practice that is invested deeply, if not wholly, in the agency of architectural form as the medium through which cultural commentary is conveyed.

About WOJR Organization for Architecture
WOJR: Organization for Architecture is an independent design practice based in Cambridge, Massachusetts founded by William O’Brien Jr. in 2009. O’Brien is an Associate Professor in the Department of Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Founder of the collaborative design practice, Collective–LOK. He has been a recipient of the Rome Prize Fellowship in Architecture awarded by the American Academy in Rome. He is a MacDowell Fellow and an Aspen Institute Socrates Fellow. He was winner of the Architectural League of New York Prize for Young Architects and Designers. O’Brien studied architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design where he was a recipient of the Faculty Design Award. His background prior to architecture is in fine art and music theory.

Congratulations to Zain Karsan of MIT and Layth Mahdi of the the University of Michigan.  Quarra Stone Company is looking forward to the amazing creations these two will fabricate during their 10 weeks in Madison, WI this summer.

The 2016 Autodesk University (AU) convention, held November 15–17 in Las Vegas, offered plenty of motivation for innovative professionals to use Autodesk’s data-driven technologies. These can enable design teams to operate at peak productivity, creativity, and efficiency and the greater AEC industry (architecture, engineering, and construction) to embrace novel disruptive ideas. One of the highlights of the convention was The Generative Design pavilion, a creative collaboration between Autodesk, Quarra Stone Company, Simpson Gumpertz & Heger, and the University of Michigan (photo by Nathan Miller).

Check it out! Quarra’s fine work was featured in Architectural Digest on May 31, 2015. The article is by Mayer Russ, with photographs by William Waldron. The house in Aspen, Colorado was designed by Bohlin Cywinski Jackson. Quarra worked closely with the architects, creating mock-ups, fabricating and installing the custom Valser quartzite for this stunning Rocky Mountain residence. See article

The sculpture was modeled full scale from a smartphone 3-D photo by the artist of a plaster cast of Michelangelo’s 15th century masterpiece in the Queens Museum. With the aid of robotics, Quarra carved a massive block of cement aggregate containing rubble, remnants and refuse collected around New York City. Pietà is a modern day fossil that exposes relationships between the abstraction of technology and the palpable effects of time.