The Building Restoration Corporation restoration of Bowman Hall at University of Wisconsin, Stout won the 2020 Associated Builders and Contractors, Minnesota and North Dakota, Eagle And Innovation Award.

See all the winners at the ABC MN/ND website.

A building that exemplifies what it means to be historic, Bowman Hall is perhaps best known for its 165-foot tall bell tower that rises over downtown Menomonie, Wisconsin, from its position at the heart of the UW-Stout Campus. The building was first raised in 1898, and is the University’s second oldest. It earned its spot on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. Many years of inappropriate masonry repairs left Bowman Hall in need of a major restoration.

Our skilled masons replaced around 20,000 custom, hand molded face brick. Included in the brick replacement were 21 ornate brick shapes that had to be perfectly replicated to match the original brick. Our crew re-pointed nearly 30,000 square feet of wall area using period correct historic mortars, including lime putty. They also replaced or repaired almost 1,000 cubic feet of brownstone on the body of the building and the bell tower. Other masonry restoration tasks included crack injection repair, redressing brownstone, sealant replacement and selective masonry cleaning.

Our sheet metal team took every aspect of the copper tower roof and weather-vane assembly and dissected, analyzed, redesigned, and upgraded it from the original. They also managed to salvage and repair most of the original copper ornamental components from the weather-vane that were then reinstalled as part of the final assembly.

This wasn’t just another restoration project for us, but an opportunity to put our name on something special and to return a historic and majestic building that had been suffering and in need, to its former glory.

BRC was selected for the project in late 2018, and we finished the restoration in 2020.