The Stone They Almost Threw Away

In 2014, a contractor demolishing an old church in Portland, Oregon, pulled a massive granite block from the foundation rubble. It was irregular, cracked along one edge, and every mason on the crew dismissed it as waste. They loaded it onto a truck bound for the landfill. But the architect, Sarah Chen, stopped the driver at the gate. She had noticed something — the stone's unusual dimensions and density made it perfect for the cornerstone of the new community center rising on the same site.…