St. Paul’s University Catholic Center

JP Cullen was hired as a subcontractor to execute the masonry and steel work on the St. Paul’s University Catholic Center, a $29 million new construction project.

This five-story building is located downtown Madison includes a student center, a new chapel, classroom/lecture rooms, and living quarters for students. The main purpose of this building is to give University of Wisconsin – Madison students a place to gather, learn, and worship while they are away from home.

The Catholic Center contains approximately 38,000 square feet of masonry veneer, which made up over 75% of the building’s surface. The veneer consists of three to six feet of a Kasota/Mankato stone cladding band around the perimeter of the building. There is also approximately 183,744 modular red bricks set in white mortar. The brick veneer has several distinct features of basket weave inlays above or below the windows with a few brick reveal and diamond inserts on the building.

Other material inlays in the masonry veneer include approximately 620 linear feet of precast and approximately 3,300 linear feet of cast stone decorative unites. There are bands, sills, caps, circles, diamonds, columns, colonnade, railings, arches, and recreative unites (the cross). Each elevation even has its own feature to exhibit the unites each inlay. There was approximately 1,700 units and over 100 special mold profiles created and used on this project.

To add a personal touch to the building, a nun at St. Paul University Catholic Center carved two pieces of stone with the building’s address that masons set in at the perimeter of the building.

JP Cullen not only worked on this building’s exterior, but also assembled a large antique fireplace mantle, which was imported from France. This mantle greets the building’s visitors entering through the front doors. The crew also laid the stone pavers on the stairwell.