Nelson Precast

Owner:

Architect:

Wisniewski Blair

General Contractor:

Christman Company

Scope Of Work

Lafayette Park is the northernmost portion of the most important real estate in the country: the President's Park complex, which includes the White House. In the 1930s it was relandscaped to add its famous statues of Revolutionary War heroes, as well as two elliptical fountains surrounded by precast concrete coping. After seventy years in one of the busiest parks in the nation, many of the coping pieces were badly damaged. When the National Park Service decided to renovate the aging fountains, they chose to replace some of the more heavily damaged coping stones as well.

This project created unique challenges. Because only some of the stones were being replaced, it was absolutely critical to match the color and texture perfectly. Moreover, the pieces would have to not only match the current color, but would have to age and weather similarly to the much older stones so that they would continue to match throughout their lifespan. The pieces were made with exposed aggregate, which meant that we had to source aggregates that were visually identical to stone quarried most of a century ago. The elliptical geometry of the fountain left no room for error in design. But although the project was a challenge, we remain very proud of the finished product, and of the fact that we had the opportunity to provide material to our nation's most prestigious street address.