Our Lady of Grace has served the Edina, MN community for three-quarters of a century, and Gage Brothers’ meticulous work on the Catholic church’s $16.8 million expansion and renovation will help it thrive for another 75 years.
Opus Design Build chose precast concrete to take advantage of its time saving efficiencies and the assurance that each meticulously crafted panel
would accurately match the 20-acre campus’ blend of classical and Georgian architecture. Gage Brothers crafted nearly 37,000 square feet of 12-inch insulated brick-face precast concrete panels for the project, adding classrooms, meeting rooms, a preschool and a new Parish Activity Center complete with a full-size gym, theater and locker rooms.
Gage Brothers’ intricate precast mockups incorporated key elements and brick details for the structure’s window openings and sills, false openings and lettering castings, adorning the facade with recessed-brick rowlocks after each group of six. Crews ensured that the architect-selected Endicott
Thin Brick’s three-color blend accurately matched the campus’ existing structures.
Through creativity and professionalism, the precaster’s engineers overcame several design challenges to provide added value.
One section of the project that houses classrooms and bathrooms and abuts the gym doubles as a storm shelter. The windows’ large openings, spandrel panels and vertical elements between the windows required crews to resolve uplift loads and sizable shear loads to ensure the section
can withstand 250 mile-per-hour winds.
Near project completion, the owner requested additional medallions to be added to existing set panels. Opus Design Build and Gage Brothers teams worked together to provide supplemental precast medallions placed near the height of the building structure, introducing further enriched character and embellishment.
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