stone buildings

[Norman Watts <Norman_Watts@zzzzzzz>]

Here where I work they have just completed a really nice-looking new
building made of stone. Slate roof and copper gutters and flashing, etc
complete the package. The campus is a big place and I haven't been in
that part for a while, so I didn't watch the building go up. Looking
closer I see that its a fake, its really a cement building faced, very
attractively, with stone. Dito for some tall, 8-9 ft, retaining walls
along the roadway. This building was payed for, as far as I know, by
the Howard Hughes foundation. So money was no object. So why make it an
imitation? Is the cement/stone facing version better, say in terms of
putting in floors and interior divisions? Or is it just hard to find
people who can build directly with stone? The building is three floors
if I remember right.