University of Mary Washington Student Center

Created to be the centerpiece of student activities at the University of Mary Washington, the 100,000 square foot student center houses various examples of Shickel craftsmanship. The highlight of Shickel’s influence on the building is a curved monumental stair. The stair was designed to have a floating landing that is supported by the stair stringers themselves. In order to ensure accuracy, the complicated stair was fabricated in a full-scale mock-up at our fabrication shop. The landing section was set slightly higher than the desired final height to account for the deflection caused by the weight of the concrete poured inside the stringers once in place. Shickel then installed glass handrail to complete a clean look on the stair. On the outside of the building, Shickel was tasked with the fabrication and installation of custom aluminum handrail. Each handrail section consisted of 28 individual pieces of aluminum and was finished with a custom white fluoropolymer coating.