or $1 Million Plant Expansion Lowrance Ends Wide Search or Bricks to Match acility When officials of Tulsa’s Lowrance Electronics Manufacturing Corp made the decision in early 1972 to build a hold the brick had dried the panels were compared with the brickwork in the main building “But we didn’t have any luck in getting the color and type of brick we needed” Ghere continued 55000 square-foot addition to the existing facility they didn’t know they would have 100000 worries about getting it finished But the 100000 worries — all representing the outside brick wall for ’the new buildingpopped up early this spring and wasn’t resolved until late October “We ordered the same type and color brick that we used on the outside of the initial building” explains Mickey Ghere production manager for Lowrance” and didn't think much ' about it' until Acme Brick Co which produced exterior bricks for our first building informed us they couldn’t provide the same size color and style brick for the $1 million addition” THE TULSA PRODUCTION facility of Acme had been closed between the time Lowrance’s first building was finished and the placement of brick orders for the expansion structure “Mr Lowrance” said Ghere referring to Darrell J Lowrance president” picked & the color and style of the bricks first used — we call them earth brown — and he really was interested in matching the exterior color with brick for the expansion” The brick problem con- fronted Lowrance executives in May and after the company had its contractor and architects search for bricks meeting the specifications Acme ' stepped in ‘‘They brought in some bricks from an Oklahoma City operation and then from Den- ’ ton Tex to see if they matched” Ghere said These tests involved shipping about 144 brick by bus from the two cities to Tulsa r i B '' MB K- v-xr ''aW fc- r "K Wifi where wall panels could be created After motar used to Bricklayer lays matching bricks "IT WAS STARTING TO come across to us” said the production manager” that the type of brick we wanted wasn’t going to be available in Oklahoma the Southwest or even perhaps anywhere in the country” That moved Lowrance officials to start up the ladder of Acme officialdom inally they visited with a sales vice president who solved their problem “We had used one type of Denton-made brick” noted Ghere “but he said we had the wrong type We went back to Denton and had them send up another batch by bus made the panel and it satisfied our needs” Although not a perfect match the brick comes as close as possible to meeting Lowrance's demands to maintain a continuity of color throughout the existing and now-a-building installation “At one time” said Ghere” we feared building work would really be delayed because of the brick problem But we had some delays anyway because of bad weather so the late arrival of the bricks didn’t slow us' down much” BRICKLAYERS STARTED putting up the walls this week The specially ordered brick will comprise the addition’s outside wall There will be a space between this wall and another brick wall in which insulation will be placed Lowrance's additional facilities will provide a more area for manufacturing marketing engineering and support functions such as data processing administration and shop units In most instances say company officials the new two-story building will double or triple the space now provided for those operations Lowrance’s first building 12000 Skelly Drive was finished in late 1970 and dedic-cated in early 1971 It contains 53000 square feet of space l
