The desire for a courthouse that would properly portray a sense of justice could only be attained through stonework, according to Project Superintendent Jessie Sadillo of Beaty Construction, Inc. in Albuquerque, NM. The limestone pieces employed for the exterior of the building, range from 15 to 40 inches in length and are 9 5/8 to 12 inches in height. The stone pieces were first split to a depth of 5 1/4 inches, and then sawn to 2 1/2-inch-thick pieces. This process created a split-face with a sawn back, explained Scott Lardner, president of Rocky Mountain Stone Co. in Albuquerque, NM, which fabricated and supplied the stone. "Since the depth of the stone is only 2 1/2-inch sawn back split-face, we saved on a lot of weight," said Lardner. The travertine pieces range from 12 to 32 inches in length, and are 4 inches in height.
The processed limestone blocks were mechanically anchored and tied back with stainless steel strap anchors. The links, fastened with DW-10 mechanical anchors, were laid in mortar and bed joints. The bed joints were purposely misaligned for effect, explained Sadillo. "We tried to pick them out so the joints would not line up, and so there was not a bunch of joints stacked up over each other," he said. After the stone was laid in a medium bed of mortar and was set to dry, it was washed down with SureKleen masonry cleaner from ProSoCo before it was hosed down again with water.