•Project Name: A Monumental Journey

•Location: Des Moines, IA

•Featured Brick color: Manganese Ironspot

•Featured Brick Size: Custom Shapes

•Project Size: 30-ft-high x 16-ft-dia., weighing 25 tons

•Design Objective: To honor the founding of the National Bar Association and the 12 courageous African American attorneys who established this important legal organization in Des Moines in 1925.

•Project Details: The renowned artist, Kerry James Marshall, took his inspiration from the talking drum of West Africa, where communities communicated complex messages over vast distances simply by varying pitch or tone to mimic patterns of speech. He clad this massive sculpture in Endicott Manganese Ironspot brick to add a dark, elegant sheen to his masterpiece. Iron ore additives in this classic material mirror the blue, gray or golden colors of the sky, further adding to the monument’s dynamic design.