WILL WATSON'S MASONRY WORK BE AWARDED ONCE AGAIN?

Part of my role within our company is to apply for Heritage Awards for projects we've completed that we feel meet the criteria of Saskatoon's Heritage Society.  The last award Ryan Watson received was for his Design work and Masonry installation on the King George Hotel that includes two hand carved Indiana limestone door surrounds. Next time your at Swank Shoe Lounge or Cupcake Conspiracy, be sure to take a closer look!

This year I had the pleasure of submitting three applications. The first for our work on the historical Hopkins House on Saskatchewan Crescent, our Masonry Design and installation at Broadway Avenue and 11th that now houses freshii, Una Pizza, and Ryde yxe, and a total restoration to Taverna Italian Kitchen & Bar downtown on 21st. Ryan and I hit the streets last week with the board members and were proud and honored to show off our work at these three locations.

Above is the historical Hopkins House that we were asked to be a part of with Strata Developments. Our scope of work included replacing the homes disintegrating concrete stair treads, with Indiana limestone, each tread weighing in at 650 pounds. Indiana limestone was used on the original structure in 1910 for all of the window sills, lintels, and plinth details. We replaced all cement details including the homes sills, stair treads and capstones with Indiana limestone. We tore down the two brick posts at either side of the staircase, cleaned each brick piece by piece before re-using them to return the posts to their original state. Once the posts were rebuilt, we capped off each post with 1900 pound limestone caps.
 
We were very pleased when the home owner decided to use our recommendation of limestone for the bases of the homes ionic columns to replace the homes original rotten wooden columns. Next, we laid limestone flooring throughout the patio which starts at the front entrance and wraps around to the back of the home. 

Above is our project at Broadway Avenue and 11th which was the old McDougall Gauley building.

Our scope of work here included designing, supplying, fabricating and installing eight Indiana limestone pilasters around the buildings facade at street level, with brick above each. The pilaster detail includes a combination of smooth and rock faced textures similar to centuries old masonry architecture style. Each pilaster is capped off with hand fabricated limestone mouldings.
 
We have designed and hand carved two street signs to be installed in the spring of 2018. One sign will be installed on the pilaster facing 11th street east and the other facing Broadway Avenue. These carvings will accompany two additional hand carved architectural details also installed this spring.
 
All stone fabrication was traditionally done on site by hand before being installed. Many of these Indiana limestone pieces used to build the pilasters weigh in at 280 pounds each. We also fabricated the moulding returns by hand on site prior to installation. 

And last but certainly not least, our restoration to Saskatoon's oldest Italian eatery, Taverna Italian Kitchen & Bar located in the heart of Saskatoon on 21st Street.

Our scope of work included; a brick and limestone combination on the exterior including the following limestone detail; dentils, a greek key motif, rock faced pilaster bases, numerous stone moldings, two hand carved Indiana limestone signs using the traditional tools of the Stone Carving trade. The first hand carved sign is of the name of the building; AGORA with THYRSUS detail below. The second hand carved sign is a date stone; 1907 EST. to pay homage to the year the building was originally built. We also restored the lounge's fireplace to match the exterior as shown below.