This incredible project placed Best in Class in the new Thin Brick category in the 2022 Brick in Architecture Awards. The Brick & The Machine boasts a stunning thin brick exterior that both complements the surrounding area yet stands out. The exterior façade is a contemporary interpretation of the historic brick landmarks in the area. Endicott Clay Products Company Manganese Ironspot Smooth Norman Thin Brick was incorporated at varying depths to create a dynamic façade treatment. The masons meticulously installed the different brick depths based on an abstraction of organic vegetation ..read more

Architect Morris Adjmi has been called “The Brick-Master.” His luxury condominium creation at 116 University Place in New York City certainly lends credence to that title. It uses an understated canvas of buff-gray brick from manufacturer Glen-Gery as a background for dramatic, deeply-corbeled, oversized window openings to create depth and shadow like only brick can. In fact, Adjmi highlighted this particular talent of brick in a 2022 interview with CityReality saying, “One of the things I always try to do is create a building animated by shadow and light. Brick lends to creating that kind of ..read more

Did you know that the Brick Industry Association (BIA) has calculators to help you determine the cost of brick construction compared to other facade materials? And they aren’t just hyper-generalized, click-bate, data-scraping calculators either. They are specific to your region and openly compare the cost of brick to competitors. Calculators are available for residential cladding, including one that compares square foot costs and one that puts those costs into the context of your mortgage. BIA’s non-residential calculator goes so far as to apply costs for brick and its competitors on many diff ..read more

Brick is a material that can restore and reinvigorate even the most hopeless of building sites. In the case of the lot that stands at the corner of 45th and East 7th Street in New York City, a devastating and deadly gas explosion destroyed the three historic tenement buildings that once stood there. But as is true of any shocking tragedy, what matters most is how we react and respond. Although those tenement buildings were reduced to rubble, with no hope of restoration, the designers at Morris Adjmi Architects were wise enough to see this site as a chance to build something beautiful and new ..read more

Brick is flexible because it can be adapted to virtually any style. From classic and traditional to contemporary and jarringly novel, brick simply works. There isn’t a style of structure that can’t be designed and built with brick and be better for it. Brick is flexible because there are so many different sizes, colors, and textures to choose from. Brick works in any style because there’s a brick for every style. The look of a facade can be dramatically impacted by the proportions of a particular brick, it’s color, and even it’s sheen. Want a low-aspect-ratio black brick with almost no te ..read more

When most people think of brick they picture a solid, dependable, beautiful material…on a building. But the substantial weight of brick can also be the perfect medium with which to express monumental emotions and historic impact in the form of sculpture. The designers at Substance Architecture and artist Kerry James Marshall found that to be true when they set out to create A Monumental Journey, a sculpture in Des Moines, Iowa celebrating the legacy of black lawyers who founded the National Bar Association in 1925.   It’s no surprise to learn that opportunities for black professionals wer ..read more

Photo by Rory Gardiner. In future blog posts this fall we’ll be encouraging you, as architects, builders, and designers, to enter the Brick Industry Association’s Brick in Architecture Awards. We offered the same encouragement last year, and you may be thinking, “I’d like to see the winners of that brick awards program…thingy.” We’d like you to see them, too, and we have just the solution for you. Check out this page on the Brick Industry Association’s website. Not only does it contain photo galleries of all the winners in all the categories of 2022’s contest, it also hosts downloadable PDFs ..read more

Brick is unmatched among building materials that can build on a traditional aesthetic character while also embracing modern construction technology. That unique characteristic is part of what paved the way to success for the designers at HDR Inc. when designing the Brendan Iribe Center for Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Maryland campus. At the onset of the project, the design team faced a challenge that is increasingly familiar to practicing architects — to create a new, state-of-the-art building that will support modern uses while allowing it to build on design themes a ..read more

As with the outfield wall at the Chicago Cub’s Wrigley Field, ivy growing on brick structures seems to carry with it an air of tradition and history. Many agree that ivy on brick is a dignified and classic design choice. But we’re not going to debate the design merits of brick and ivy here. Rather, let’s discuss whether that ivy is good for the brick structure itself. There seems to be a common notion that ivy will deteriorate a brick wall. But despite a few minor drawbacks to consider with ivy, well-built brick structures are far too durable and resilient to be damaged by a few vines. It help ..read more

The Filigree House is a rarity within Philadelphia’s Graduate Hospital Neighborhood. Unlike most buildings in this neighborhood it sits on a double-wide lot, which gave the design team a prominent canvas with which to contribute a bold statement to the streetscape, but with the challenge of staying within the confines of the existing neighborhood’s fabric. Making the most of the opportunity called for brick, of course! As with any residence, privacy was a must for this 5,000-square-foot home. To provide that privacy, the Moto Designshop team created a four-layer brick screen at the front of th ..read more