© 2007 Hester & Hardaway Photographers, Fayetteville Texas, www.photogypsies.com

Best Brick Project
Local 5 Oklahoma/ Arkansas/ Texas
Dillard College of Business Administration, Midwestern State University
Wichita Falls, TX

Signatory Contractor: W.P. Howle Masonry Contractor, Inc.

Architect/Designer: Bundy, Young, Sims & Potter, Inc.

Midwestern State University’s new Dillard College of Business Administration continues the tradition of Romanesque architecture with its multi-colored Mediterranean full-cornered clay tile roofs, and blended modular clay brick sidewalls terminating in corbelled, arcaded brick dentil work.

The $18 million, 89,500 square-foot project began in January 2005 and was completed just in time for the start of the 2006 school year. Employed by W.P. Howle Masonry Contractor, Inc., 12 members of Local 5 were responsible for the project’s $1.1 million of masonry work. The project required masons expert in the intricate mechanics of brick corbelling, arch work, and blending applied to the three-story building.

Brick and cast-stone arches supported by cast-stone colonnades add to the fenestration of the exterior, while the interior creates a contrasting modern-day environment with exposed cabling and structure. The exterior brick and cast-stone are carried throughout the interior, where they meet with glass walls, steel cabling, high volume spaces, and creative lighting.