Lowell Observatory

FLAGSTAFF, AZ

The Marley Foundation Astronomy Discovery Center at Lowell Observatory presented a geometric challenge that flat-wall commercial construction never encounters. JWA designed the building as a series of interlocking curved volumes nestled into the observatory’s ponderosa forest campus, and the masonry envelope had to follow every arc without a straight wall in sight. Ground Face, Split Face, and Smooth CMU in Mountain White and Ebony wrap the forms in alternating horizontal bands, the texture and color shifts marking each volume while maintaining a unified material language across the full complex. BEC Southwest and Sun Valley Masonry executed curved CMU construction at a scale and complexity that the finished building makes look effortless.

COMPLETION YEAR

2024

ARCHITECT

JWA

GENERAL CONTRACTOR

MASONRY CONTRACTOR

MASONRY UNIT(S)

Texture: Ground Face, Split Face, Smooth
Color: Mountain White, Ebony
General Unit Sizes: 8816, 12816, 12416, 8416

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