June 2026
Long before the first visitor ever walked through the gates of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, part of its story was already taking shape in southern Wisconsin — in the hands of the craftspeople at Quarra Stone Company.
For eight years, the Sun Prairie-based architectural stone company quietly worked on one of the most symbolically significant construction projects in recent American history. The result of that work is now permanently embedded in the landscape of the Center: a handcrafted granite fountain, shaped not merely as a water feature but as a piece of sculpture.
“It’s a unique shape — it’s really a piece of sculpture,” said Quarra Stone founder Jim Durham of the finished exterior element.
Durham, who built Quarra Stone from the ground up starting in 1989, has spent more than three decades steering the company through landmark commissions. The Obama Presidential Center presented something different. The fountain project demanded creativity, precision, and endurance in equal measure — drawing on nearly every corner of the company’s operation.
“It did use every part and ability of the facility, the equipment, and the people in this company,” Durham said.
A Project That Required Everything
The granite pieces for the artisanal fountain were fabricated over thousands of hours at Quarra’s Sun Prairie headquarters, where a one-third-scale miniature model of the fountain still stands today — a quiet monument to the years of work that preceded the real thing.
Project manager Josh Trumm, who shepherded the commission alongside the Quarra team, described what it meant to be part of it.
“These pieces are going to outlive me, and they’re going to be part of future generations. And my kids are going to be able to take their kids there and say, ‘Hey, your grandfather built this,'” Trumm said.
For Durham, the project is one more chapter in a long history of putting Wisconsin craftsmanship into the fabric of American architecture. It joins a portfolio that includes supplying materials for the JPMorgan Chase headquarters in New York, as well as a range of other prestigious commissions across the country.
Craft at the Center of Everything
What made the Obama Presidential Center project meaningful wasn’t only its profile. It was the nature of the work itself — stone cut, shaped, and finished by hand, with the care that defines the Quarra approach.
The Center opened to the public in June 2026, coinciding with Juneteenth celebrations across the country. For the team in Sun Prairie, seeing years of work open to the world brought a sense of quiet satisfaction.
“It’s an all-star team, and we were pleased to be a part of it,” Durham said.
That’s the Quarra way: do the work, do it right, and let the stone speak for itself.
Quarra Stone Company is based in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, and specializes in architectural stone fabrication, digital stone cutting, fine art stone work, and restoration. Learn more at quarrastone.com and follow us on instagram @quarrastone
Originally covered by Spectrum News 1: Written in stone: Sun Prairie company helped build Obama Presidential Center
