Rock 'n' roll

Kraemer finds the right stone for Town Center

By Janine Anderson

For Kraemer Brothers LLC, the Town Center project in Fitchburg offered a chance to dig in with a longtime client.

Bill Linton, founder of Promega Corp. and a Kraemer customer on eight projects since 1988, needed a new building for the biotechnology company's administrative branch. He wanted a classic, timeless structure nestled in a natural prairie.

Roughly two-thirds of the building's 83,000 square feet would be leased to Promega. The rest was reserved for complementary businesses, which include a coffee shop and massage therapist.

Linton chose Kraemer Brothers for the job, but that wasn't the end of his involvement.

"One of the neat things was working that closely with a client that interested in the building," said Ryan Kraemer, Kraemer Brothers' assistant vice president.

"He was very actively involved in selecting materials and in the design of the building."

As the project team explored design options, natural materials - such as copper and wood accents on a stone building - quickly emerged as Linton's choice.

	Project Name: Town Center Location: Fitchburg Submitting Company: Kraemer Brothers LLC, Plain General Contractor: Kraemer Brothers LLC Project Leader: Marty Kraemer, Kraemer's project manager Architect: Strang Inc., Madison Engineers: Arnold & O'Sheridan Inc., Madison, structural engineer; Jenkins Survey & Design Inc., Verona, civil engineer; Strang Inc., mechanical, electrical engineer Owner: Orion 7, Fitchburg Project Cost: $22.5 million Project Size: 83,000 square feet Start Date: September 2005 Completion Date: December 2006

Norm Kraemer, the 83-year-old founder of Kraemer Brothers and masonry foreman for the project, paid special attention to the stone selection. Norm Kraemer and Linton took trips to several quarries to find just the right stone, and even after the stone was selected, Norm Kraemer kept working on the project.

"He was actively involved in all of the masonry," Ryan Kraemer said. "We looked at different methods to lay it."

Linton wanted to bring to his company's new building in Fitchburg a masonry method he saw on buildings in Europe and California. Very little mortar was used between the stones, giving the building a dry-laid look.

Translating that method from temperate climate zones to the upper Midwest wasn't easy.

"California hasn't gone through the Wisconsin freeze-thaw cycle," Ryan Kraemer said. "We had to find a way to make it structurally stand the cycles. We worked closely with the stone suppliers to make sure we could get the stone wall to be self-supporting."

In the end, the masonry was a success, and the stone walls form the base for a building that complements its prairie surroundings. Norm Kraemer's work with the project's masonry crew made that possible, said Ryan Kraemer.

"He kept involved and stopped in once a week to see how it was being laid and that it was being laid in the right way," Ryan Kraemer said. "Our relationship with Bill spans [nearly] 20 years. [Norm] wanted to make sure the method was achieved and achieved properly."