Brick Archives - Archpaper.com

February 26, 2020

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The design and construction of affordable housing in New York is a formidable task; between labor and material costs, and the hurdles of municipal zoning and housing regulation, even the grandest of projects are budget engineered into imitations of the original concept. Magnusson Architecture and Planning’s (MAP) St. Augustine Terrace, a low-income residential tower located in the Bronx, challenges that trend with a thoughtful design consisting of dark brick and matted aluminum composite panels. Over the last three decades, MAP has led a broad range of affordable housing projects across New York City and the Hudson Valley. St. Augustine Terrace is located just south of Cortona Park in the Morrisania neighborhood, the project and joins the practice’s particular focus on urban regeneration in the Bronx—the building was also awarded a merit in the 2020 AIANY Design Awards and an AIA New York State Design Award.

Facade Manufacturer Alcoa Glen Gerry
Architect Magnusson Architecture and Planning
Facade Installer D&G Construction Arco Construction Commercial Window Group
Location The Bronx, New York
Date of Completion 2019
System CMU and metal stud
Products Glen Gery "Dark Iron" Roman Brick Platinum Reynobond FR by Alcoa

The tower rises on the triangular plot of the former site of the Church of St. Augustine, which was demolished in 2013 after decades of decay stemming from a dwindling congregation. In total, the project provides 112 affordable housing units, of which approximately a quarter are devoted to adults with mental illness. The elevator lobbies of each floor are located on the primary south elevation and provide views of the Manhattan skyline through significant glazing bays. To mitigate glare, MAP wrapped each elevator lobby with a four-ringed set of brise soleil produced by Kawneer. “We designed the sunshades to wrap around the entire glazed portion of the elevator lobby from very early in the design phase, and sized them so that they would shade a majority of the floor-to-ceiling glazing during peak sun hours in the hottest months of the year,” said MAP principal Fernando Villa. “We typically work these calculations out through drawing sections, calculating the angle of the sun at several points in the year, and sometimes with schematic sun studies.” Outside of the significant glazing on the south elevation, the bulk of the tower’s cladding is composed of aluminum composite and brick. The aluminum composite panels are just over an eighth-of-an-inch thick and are arranged in alternating bands of dimensions; narrow panels line spandrels while those of larger height span from floor to ceiling. The tower’s Roman-style bricks are in keeping with the surrounding turn-of-the-century context and are arranged according to a standard running bond.

February 5, 2020

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Completed in December 2019, The Looking Glass is a four-story mixed-use renovation for developer Warenar Real Estate that offers a thoughtful solution for merging contemporary design within the centuries-old Museum Quarter of Amsterdam. Designed by Dutch architectural practice UN Studio, the approach addresses both the contextual and use demands of the site with finely curved glass panels and well-crafted brick masonry. The project faces the Pieter Cornelisz Hooftstraat, one of Amsterdam's primary retail corridors. Like much of the Netherlands’ architectural vernacular, the area is composed of three to four-story structures of sober restraint. Ornament is largely limited to spandrel brickwork detailing and carved wood brackets at the cornice—this is not a setting for ostentatiousness. UN Studio’s design respects this heritage while heightening the streetscape with a constrained aesthetic flourish, that, in its curvaceousness and subtle steelwork, bears resemblance to a playful Art Noveau storefront in the style of Victor Horta or Frantz Jourdain.

Facade Manufacturer Cricursa Octatube Van der Sanden Group
Architect UN Studio Gietermans & Van Dijk Architecten (executive architect)
Facade Installer Octatube Nederland Wessels Zeist
Facade Engineer ARUP
Structural Engineer Brouwer en Kok
Location Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Date of Completion Decembr 2019
System Custom glass-and-steel system
Products Low-iron Cricursa glass Van der Sanden Group brick slips

Each bay is comprised of two primary features, low-iron glass boxes and brickwork. At the second story, the glass boxes protrude significantly from the facade before curving and overlapping the groundfloor’s glazing. The maneuver lends a flowing quality to the facade while maintaining full transparency of the lintel and brick-chevron frieze. Each of the glass panels is bonded with structural silicone, and their seams are obscured by narrow and polished stainless steel frames. On the ground floor, the concave underbelly of each curved panel transitions to a broad stainless steel strip that furthers material differentiation at street level. The windows were assembled off-site—no small feat considering that their average height is approximately 27 feet—and installed as prefabricated pieces. The renovation, which removed the first three stories of brick in favor of glazing, required the insertion of narrow columns of glass-fiber reinforced concrete (GFRC) panels between the window bays. Following the installation of glazing, the GFRC components were covered in a rigid insulation layer. The new masonry is entirely comprised of hand-molded, reddish-brown brick slips produced by the Van der Sanden Group; the brick slips are glued to the insulation membrane and largely follow a Dutch-bond pattern. Although the inclusion of brick on the renovated facade is only surface level, their hand-molded fabrication lends an imperfect and wrinkled surface with slight variances in dimension—a gradient of patina blending with the overall streetwall. UN Studio founder Ben van Berkel will discuss The Looking Glass, and other projects, at the opening keynote for Facades+ New York City on April 2nd.

August 28, 2019

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Evanston, Illinois is located over a dozen miles from the city center of Chicago, on the northern fringe of Cook County, and is bounded by Lake Michigan to the east. The city is fairly typical for the region: there is a postwar central business district surrounded by tracts of suburban housing, some clad with wood drop-siding and others with exposed brick. Completed in 2018, the Lipton Thayer Brick House by Los Angeles-and-Florida-based architectural practice Brooks + Scarpa and Chicago's Studio Dwell burst onto the scene with a twisting-brick screen backed by a Miesian glass curtain wall. The 2,500-square-foot family residence and conforms to the city-mandated suburban lot lines, with the entire outer shell composed of Chicago Common Brick. The side elevations rise sheer with limited fenestration to the east and west, while the 21-foot-tall brick skin on the north elevation breaks to partially reveal the entrance courtyard.

Facade Manufacturer Chicago Common Brick Vitro Accurate Metal Chicago LM Scolfield
Architect Brooks + Scarpa Studio Dwell
Facade Installer Studio Dwell
Structural Engineer Louis Shell Structures
Location Evanston, IL
Date of Completion 2018
System Custom steel screen Type V wood frame over Type I reinforced concrete
Products Chicago Common Brick Vitro Solarban 80 LM Scolfeild Lithochrome

As Chicago Common brick has not been produced for nearly four decades, the material was salvaged from past and ongoing demolitions of historic structures. It is an irregular and coarse material formerly harvested from local clay beds that were formed from the diverse deposits of retreating glaciers from the last ice age. The resulting finish—the clay is baked at a temperature of 1500-degrees Fahrenheit over the course of a few days— is inconsistent in color from brick to brick which provides a softly gradated facade. While visually complex, the design team utilized a straightforward methodology to achieve the rotating pattern. "Using ruled surface geometry, the undulating facade is formed by connecting two curves with a series of straight lines to form the surface of the facade," said Brooks + Scarpa. "This technique allowed the design team to work with complex curved forms and rationalize them into simple, cost-effective standardized components, making them easy to fabricate and efficient to install." A thin layer of mortar is located between each successive brick of the vertical columns. However, the task of keeping the masonry screen in place falls to a steel system produced by Accurate Metal Chicago. A steel rebar pipe, running from base to cornice, passes through each individual brick. Additionally, interstitially-placed steel plates are integrated with the vertical bands of rebar and brick every few courses, supplementing the screen with horizontal bracing. Past the screen wall, the courtyard is lined with rectangular, high-visibility glass curtain wall modules framed with aluminum. Sunlight from the northern exposure is filtered through the screen wall, softening the daylight that reaches the interior spaces. The rear elevation, which faces a service alley, is composed of recycled Portland cement panels stained with LITHOCHROME to achieve a light-grey finish.

May 10, 2019

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Tykeson Hall, currently wrapping up construction, is nestled in the center of the University of Oregon’s Eugene campus. Designed by Portland’s OFFICE 52 Architecture, the intervention consolidates classrooms, academic advisors, counseling, and tutoring for nearly 23,000 students under one roof. The 64,000-square-foot academic building carefully inserts itself into the campus with a variegated terra-cotta and brick facade with moments of glass curtain wall. The building, like much of the campus, rises as a rectangular mass with a series of incisions and setbacks for daylighting and programmatic purposes. To match with the cornice height of the surrounding structures, Tykeson Hall tops out at four stories.

Facade Manufacturer Shildan Group Mutual Materials Hardscape and Masonry Kawneer Vitro Hartung Viracon
Architects OFFICE 52 Architecture Rowell Brokaw Architects
Facade Installer Streimer Sheet Metal Davidson's Masonry Culver Glass Company
Location Eugene, Oregon
Date of Completion Summer 2019
System Kawneer 1600 Wall System Open-joint rainscreen system with a fully thermally broken aluminum window system
Products Custom extruded terra-cotta tiles by Shildan Group Mutual Materials Hardscape and Masonry Columbia Red and Autumn Blend Vitro Solarban 60 & 70 Viracon VE-1-2M

The principal material for the exterior envelope is a terra-cotta rainscreen system composed of 3,100 vertical tiles manufactured in Germany by the Shildan Group. This is the first application of terra-cotta on the historic campus in over eighty years—and earlier examples are chiefly decorative rather than performative. All of the terra-cotta tiles roughly measure six inches by three-to-five feet and are clipped to an aluminum grid at both their top and bottom. In using such a straightforward fastening method, the tiles can be easily removed, repaired, or replaced. Visually striking from multiple vantage points across the campus, the pattern of the matte-glazed terra-cotta tiles was developed from the study of Oregon's natural landscape and the architectural context of the University of Oregon's campus. "We looked at numerous color combinations and determined that five colors were necessary so that no color was ever repeated adjacent to itself on any side," said Office 52 founding principal Michelle LaFoe and principal Isaac Campbell. "We then produced keyed drawings that called out every one of the 3,100 tiles, and we made full-scale mock-ups of the final options in our studio. The final resolution of the palette came down to a gray palette that had both warm and cool colors." The most common material element found throughout the campus is brick, loadbearing in the case of historic structures, curtain for the contemporary. The existing brick color palette is largely brownish-red and arranged according to the simple Stretcher bond pattern—bricks overlaying each other midway on each successive course. For the project, the university required OFFICE 52 Architecture integrate this overarching aesthetic into the design of Tykeson Hall. To this end, the design team researched prospective brick layouts to enliven the facade along the east, north, and south elevations of the project. "During our research, we discovered an interesting pattern known as an English Cross bond, which creates a diagonal pattern by staggering the vertical mortar joints from course to course," continued LaFoe and Campbell. "Intrigued with this pattern and seeking to increase its scale, we added a course of longer Norman bricks to the pattern, creating a new pattern which we called a Norman Cross bond." For the coloring of these three elevations of brick, OFFICE 52 Architecture worked with Mutual Materials Hardscape and Masonry to develop a custom-blend of their Columbia Red and Autumn Blend brick types. In total, 78,000 bricks were used for the project, with the design team using building information modeling software to ensure the pattern corresponded with window returns and corner finishes. The bulk of the project's fenestration is composed of punched window openings. However, one-story glass curtainwall projects from the prevailing sedimentary mass along the north, west, and south elevations. Tykeson Hall is estimated to be completed in July 2019.

May 3, 2019

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The Brooklyn waterfront is no stranger to development. Over the past two decades, swaths of post-industrial Williamsburg filled with warehouses and factories have been cleared in favor of glass-and-steel residential properties. One building, 25 Kent, an under-construction half-million-square-foot office tower designed by Hollwich Kushner as Design Architect and Gensler as Design Development Architect bucks the area's cliches with its bifurcated facades of brick, glass, and blackened steel. On a lot that measures 400 feet by 200 feet, the full-block project presents a formidable mass in comparison to its low-rise recent neighbors. Reaching eight stories, with floor to ceiling heights of 15 feet, the office tower is largely split between two staggered rectangular volumes linked by a hovering glass prism. Combining these three materials is not inherently novel, but the mix presented challenges in meeting increasingly stringent sustainability and LEED goals. "In lieu of brick returns, an aluminum perimeter trim was used in tandem with thermally broken window to achieve the best performance in a practical and cost-effective manner," said Yalin Uluaydin, senior associate at Eckersley O'Callaghan, the project's facade consultant. "Similar issues were addressed at the interface of the east and west facing aluminum curtain wall and underslung curtain wall. Mainly we had to address the offset mullions and how the curtain wall end panels are set in a brick opening on three sides."

Facade Manufacturer Summit Brick Pure+FreeForm Guardian Schüco
Architects Gensler Hollwich Kushner
Facade Installer CMI
Facade Consultants Eckersley O'Callaghan
Location Brooklyn, New York
Date of Completion 2019
System Glass curtainwall with punched masonry
Products 25 Kent Blend Brick SCHUCO AWS 75. SI+ Guardian SN 70/41 Brooklyn Steel

The structure's facades are understated, rising with little in the way of outward ornament. The east and west elevations are clad in glass curtain wall modules tied to the structural slab edges with steel anchors. For the side-street elevations, the design team nods to the surrounding historic warehouses with multi-tone brick surfaces. Successive floors, which protrude and recess like an overturned-ziggurat, are clad in a custom blend of bricks patterned in a stretcher-bond format. Punched mullion-free window openings, measuring eight feet by ten feet, are rhythmically placed across these elevations to further daylighting while mirroring the stylistic qualities of adjacent structures. The windows, inset from the brick drape, are lined with custom 'blackened steel' finished aluminum. On the North and South streets, the retail storefront entrances are framed with printed 'blackened steel' aluminum portals, in a custom finish developed by Pure+FreeForm The portal details were brushed with silver pearl and treated with a patinated gloss matte layer, providing subtle iridescent qualities. Proximity to the waterfront, although an amenity, also presented a structural challenge for the design team. "The foundation design is a continuous mat slab with thickened portions below the tower shear wall cores, and drilled tiedown anchors located outside the tower footprints to counteract hydrostatic uplift from groundwater," said Gensler Design Manager & Senior Associate Anne-Sophie Hall. "To accommodate the architectural intent of the vast column-free space in the central region of each floor plate, each of the six columns supporting the bridge slab has a 20-foot long rectangular drop panel to achieve the desired long span with a conventionally reinforced 12-inch slab, while eschewing post-tensioning or similar strategies which would have entailed additional costs or specialized subcontractors."

April 19, 2019

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Located on a prominent site within the town of Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, 20 miles from the center of Paris, the Elancourt Music School is a weighty two-story structure clad in hand-made bricks that stagger to create a series of apertures to illuminate interior spaces. The nearly 10,000-square-foot project was designed by Paris-based Opus 5 Architectes and completed in October 2018. Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines is one of six major "new towns" built around Paris during the 1970s. The settlements are marked by their towering brutalist structures, and the Elancourt Music School is housed in the district’s former ecumenical center, a centrally placed concrete structure originally designed by French architect Phillippe Deslandes. Opus 5 reskinned this concrete building with a new brick veneer to establish the structure's new identity.

Facade Manufacturer Wienerberger
Architects Opus 5 Architectes
Facade Installer SRMG
Facade Consultants Batiserf Wienerberger
Location Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, France
Date of Completion 2018
System Brick rainscreen and sun filter
Products Wienerberger Briques Oud Leerne

For the fabrication of the facade, the design team turned to the centuries-old Austrian brick manufacturer, Wienerberger. The bricks, all roughly measuring eight-by-four-by-two-inches, are held in place by tie rods and a thin layer of mortar. Each application of mortar is recessed and measures under an inch deep, providing the facade a mortar-less appearance. The bricks, which come in a range of grayish shades, are generally arranged in a stretcher bond format—alternately showing long and short sides. This formal arrangement breaks as the bricks shift apart to form mashrabiya-inspired sunscreens. “The idea was to begin at the bottom, without relief or mashrabiya, as an opaque and simple brick facade which progressively moves into sinusoidal and wavy relief and texture to be widely opened along the interior windows,” said Opus 5 Architectes project manager Hùng Tôn. "Once we gave rules for the pattern, the shades of color (from light gray to dark charcoal, with some light brown) and texture (matte and glossy) came randomly during the construction of the brick walls to keep dynamism on this skin." Throughout the design process, Opus 5 Architectes collaborated closely with the facade manufacturer to establish the structure's monolithic character—Wienerberger considered the use of timber and metallic frames to cantilever the brick over the school's primary entrance. "According to Wienerberger, the main brick reference used in the project (Rustica Oud Leerne) was never executed like this—visually mortarless, with mashrabiya patterns," continued Tôn. "The project is novel, so it was an interesting exercise for the manufacturer too."

March 11, 2019

London’s Fitzrovia neighborhood is a bit of an architectural collage. There are 18th- and 19th-century brick homes interspersed with 20th-century concrete housing blocks and, at its far east end, John Nash’s All Souls Church. The London firm Bureau de Change was asked to create a building sandwiched between two of the many simple brick buildings in the area, and as much as the firm hoped to respect this context and legacy, the designers wanted to disrupt it too. Their “Interlock” building, a five-story residential building with a street-level cafe and a gallery below, features an undulating facade of cool gray-blue bricks that enliven the building's elongated form. “We were interested in taking these very traditional proportions and in some way subverting it,” explained co-founder and director Katerina Dionysopoulou, “like a puzzle box that seems familiar and reveals a hidden complexity that increases the more you interact with it.” Considering how a brick facade could respond to openings and fenestration, rather than just frame them, Bureau de Change designed ripples that seems to grow out of and shrink into the windows and doors. The firm modeled 14 brick types and worked closely throughout the research and development process with brickmakers to iterate forms that would fit together, successfully fire in the kiln, and remain strong when arranged. Once the final forms were decided, handmade metal molds were made and bricks—5,000 of them—were cast. In addition to the 14 “parent” brick morphologies, 30 related “offspring” bricks were derived during the modeling and testing process, for a total of 44 different brick types. “We were walking the line of what would be technically possible, but through this process, found a point that was both buildable and produced the richness and movement we were trying to achieve,” said co-founder and director of Bureau de Change Billy Mavropoulos, on striking a balance throughout conception, design, and construction. The intensive modeling process allowed the designers to control the placement of each individual brick, and installers were given 3D files so they could align each of the rows correctly, which, due to the unusual nature of the structure, required millimeter-level accuracy and specific adaptations for each region of the facade. Between the windows, steel trays were necessary to support the bricks, but installers had to expertly align them so that the frames’ edges would be hidden. Similarly, the layout had to be crafted in such a way that holes within the bricks that help with their load-bearing ability were hidden despite the many odd angles they were placed at. The bricks were made of Staffordshire Blue Clay and were fired in oxidation to create the matte finish. Building the 5,000-brick “landscape” took three months. “The fabrication team used 1:1 printed templates that set out the number, typology, and location of each brick,” explained the firm, going on to say that the 188 templates acted as a sort of “construction manuscript.” The process was defined by collaboration between Bureau de Change, the brick manufacturers Forterra, and the construction team, and, as comes with working iteratively on untested ideas, it took a great deal of trial and error.

December 14, 2018

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Located on a corner site within London’s historic Soho district, a neighborhood long associated with the arts, 40 Beak Street is an animated four-story structure clad in iridescent glazed brick with cast aluminum window surrounds and soffits. The nearly 28,000-square-foot project was designed by London-based firm Stiff + Trevillion and is currently undergoing interior work by artist Damien Hirst who recently purchased the building.

Facade Manufacturer St. Joris, Ibstock Kevington, Ancon Building Products, Shuco
Architects Stiff + Trevillion, Veretec (Executive Architect)
Facade Installer Henry Construction Alucraft (windows)
Facade Consultants Price & Myers
Location London
Date of Completion June 2018
System Concrete structure with brick cladding
Products Schuco FW50, custom St. Joris brick & glazing, Ancon Building Products steel frame

At the inception of the design strategy, Stiff + Trevillion determined that a heavyweight building with a brick facade was the clear choice for integrating into the surrounding context. Soho, like much of London’s West End, is composed of Georgian and Victorian architecture of low to medium-height, laid out over a narrow network of streets. After setting the basic pattern of fenestration—nearly full height, double-fixed windows spaced evenly—the team dived into certain facade details such as the inclusion of projecting piers approximately every ten feet to conceal movement joints and further the verticality of the overall mass. According to Stiff + Trevillion, the design team “initially anticipated that the facade would be constructed using precast modules clad with glazed brick slips” due to the degree of repetition found in their facade pattern. Ultimately, the inability of the precast units to be fabricated within the predetermined cost constraints led the firm to incorporate hand laid bricks into their design. For the fabrication of the facade, the firm looked across the North Sea to St. Joris, a glazing specialist based out of Beesel in the southeastern corner of the Netherlands. The bricks, all roughly measuring 8.5 inches by 4 inches by 2.5 inches, were harvested in the centuries-old clay pits of the nearby Westerwald mountain range. The clay deposits found in this region are noted for their density of minerals, including quartz, illite, and kaolinite, providing a high threshold for firing stability, a useful trait when baked at temperatures bordering 1200 degrees Celsius. In total, St. Joris produced 100 special brick formats, a result of differing shapes and variations on which face the brick was hand glazed. Glazing for the project consists of two colors: a dark blue at the base of the building (handy for concealing grime associated with street level commotion) which brightens to a lighter blue-green moving upward. The bricks are arranged according to a stretcher bond layout, exposing the longer face of each brick on both the facade and interior spaces. "The facade was constructed with the brickwork acting as a rainscreen, and using secondary steel framing provided by Ancon Building Products as the inner leaf, faced in cementitious board," said Stiff + Trevillion Director Lance Routh. "The bricks are fastened to the frame by a course of stainless steel shelf angles that run continuously at every floor level." Between every brick course the contractor applied an approximately 1/4-inch application of black mortar to blend with the darker hue of the glazing. Where the design breaks away from its brick-and-mortar context is with unique corner window surrounds and soffits designed by British artist Lee Simmons. Composed of cast aluminum, the lustrous asymmetrical detail shifts away from the relative formality of the brick-faced construction, while falling in line with the more exuberant Victorian architectural details found throughout Soho. This secondary facade element is fitted to the "inner leaf" via armatures extending through the brick curtain, and sealed with a breather membrane and EPDM. The fit-out of the interior, which features a double-height space with a mezzanine deck, is expected to be complete at the beginning of 2019.

October 25, 2018

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Since the construction of the High Line’s first section in 2009, Manhattan’s Meatpacking District has undergone a dramatic transformation from a declining industrial district to a burgeoning site of development attracting leading national and international firms. Now, California’s Backen & Gillam Architects has stamped its presence in the neighborhood with a modern aluminum-and-glass screen wall inserted atop a restored historic reddish-brown brick warehouse.

Facade Manufacturer Ahlborn Structural Steel, Inc
Architects Backen & Gillam Architects
Facade Installer Steadfast Development & Construction
Facade Consultants Jacqueline Pue-Duvallon Historic Preservation Consulting
Location New York
Date of Completion 2018
System Pre-fabricated aluminum screen wall
Products Custom-designed black aluminum frames

Located on the corner of Little West 12th Street and 9th Avenue, the nearly 100,000-square-foot project for the retailer formerly known as Restoration Hardware, now known as RH, is within the stringently-protected Gansevoort Market Historic District. The building itself was constructed over a century ago as a retail warehouse, and ultimately transformed into a garage for the renowned Astor family. For project lead Jim Gillam, the constraints set by the Landmarks Preservation Commission pushed the design team to draw upon the neighborhood’s prevailing historical elements: the bolts, splices, and rivet patterns found on steel and cast-iron awnings, as well as elevated infrastructure. The new black aluminum frames primarily consist of a set of prefabricated components. Each frame is composed of two aluminum cross braces which are fitted to a set of turnbuckles, allowing for the adjustment of tension across the screen wall. T-frames studded with bolts are the primary vertical and horizontal elements of the screen wall. These can be split into two categories: structural members that run the length of the elevation and drive into the building below, and beams supporting the overall rigidity of the frame. This entire system is connected to an array of vertical mullions through existing steel brackets and a new screen wall connector. For the project, Backen & Gillam worked closely with the manufacturer, Ahlborn Structural Steel, to produce a kit of parts that was easy to assemble on site. Every component shipped from Santa Rosa, California, was designed as a three-piece unit set to maximize space on the convoy of flatbed trucks that carted them across the country. Each aspect of the screen wall, down to the bolts, were numbered and classified to ease their installation. In total, the design and construction teams were able to erect the entire addition in approximately two weeks. Gillam's interior spaces maintain the structure's historical bones while providing room to breathe for the new. The central and defining moment of the internal spaces is the light-filled, six-story atrium extending the full height of the complex, with successive rows of fluted Corinthian columns bordering aluminum-and-glass balconies.

October 23, 2018

New York–based multi-disciplinary studio, BREAKFAST, has unveiled a groundbreaking kinetic facade product dubbed "Brixels." The use of kinetic panels for facade and interior design has rapidly grown in popularity both domestically and abroad recently, animating visuals and opening new paths for natural ventilation. Each display is composed of an array of brick-sized pieces that are fully customizable in terms of massing, material, and finish. Through a central cavity, each individual piece is latched onto a central support shaft, which allows the objects to rotate in either direction. At the base of each central support shaft, BREAKFAST has inserted a series of printed circuit boards that are in turn connected to a Linux control computer. Through visual sensors, the installations can track and respond to adjacent physical movement or can be controlled directly through a web-based application. The multidisciplinary studio tested out their new technology with the 19-foot wide by 6-foot tall installation dubbed Brixel Mirror. Made of polished aluminum and matte-black steel, the pieces are capable of achieving 60 rpm via an app or one-on-one control. While Brixel Mirror is the most significant application of the technology-embedded material to date, Andrew Zolty, BREAKFAST’s co-founder and head of design, has big ambitions for the product. According to Zolty, the customizability of the interactive blocks allows them “to become part of the space, rather than an add-on, used to outfit or become interior walls, room dividers, fences, railings, or even building facades.” Brixels have been tested to withstand the elements outdoors; a building can be entirely clad in sprawling, perpetually moving paneling.

October 11, 2018

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Morris Adjmi Architects has just completed its wedge-shaped 363 Lafayette mixed-use development in New York City. The project is located in the heart of the NoHo Historic District, a context known for its mid-rise store-and-loft buildings clad in detailed cast iron and stone.

Facade Manufacturer Boston Valley Terracotta, Belden/Tristate Brick, Vitro Glass, Tristar Glass
Architects Morris Adjmi Architects
Facade Installer PG New York (terra-cotta), IHR1 (brick), TriStar Glass
Facade Consultants Frank Seta & Associates
Location New York
Date of Completion Fall 2018
System Terracotta rainscreen on a frame wall system flanked by brick piers
Products Win-vent series 850 frames, Solarban z60 glass, custom-made rainscreen produced by Boston Valley Terra Cotta, and installed with TerraClad clip system

363 Lafayette’s site is prominent, with three visible elevations to the north, south, and west. The ground floor of the building is dedicated to commercial space and extends from Great Jones to Bond Street. Due to zoning and site constraints, the massing of the west facade is set back, with eight floors of office space rising midway through the elevation. The development’s facade is defined by horizontal and vertical bands of white brick, produced by Belden/Tristate Brick, which frame a charcoal-colored terra-cotta curtain wall. For the color scheme and materiality of 363 Lafayette, Morris Adjmi reinterpreted the area’s historically narrow terracotta mullions, window surrounds, and brick piers, into a much wider layout. Designed by the firm and crafted by Buffalo’s Boston Valley Terra Cotta (BVTC), the geometric pattern of the terra-cotta reliefs was conceived by the design team as an abstraction of neighboring Classical and Richardsonian Romanesque detailing. The custom-made terra-cotta rainscreen was installed on BVTC’s TerraClad clip system that attaches to a perimeter concrete beam and a medium-gauge framing wall. A series of gaskets and isolators allow the system to adjust to thermal expansion while reducing wind-induced vibration. Elongated rectangular windows, fabricated by TriStar with Win-Vent frames and Vitro Glass, are placed between chamfered terra-cotta mullions. Why does the building twist? Lafayette Street used to proceed north from Great Jones Street until the end of the 19^th century when the street was excavated from the IRT subway. The excavation of the street led to the creation of odd-shaped sites, such as 363 Lafayette. According to the design team, “the building’s twist serves to reflect the cut of the street and to architecturally engage the setback with the lower portion of the building.”

June 22, 2018

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The Owsley Brown II History Center is just one part of a unified campus expansion for The Filson Historical Society in Louisville, Kentucky. Located in the historic neighborhood of Old Louisville, the project reinterprets the surrounding Italianate architecture in a contemporary way. de Leon & Primmer Architecture Workshop (DPAW) played with proportionality, depth, and layering of materials to achieve this.

Facade Manufacturer Sioux City (brick), Sentry Steel, Inc. (prefinished metal cornice), Old Castle (glass curtain walls), Trulite Glass and Aluminum Systems (frameless glass wall), Hieb Concrete Products Inc. (precast concrete)
Architects de Leon & Primmer Architecture Workshop
Facade Installer Realm Construction Company, Wehr Constructors (concrete)
Facade Consultants de Leon & Primmer Architecture Workshop
Location Louisville, KY
Date of Completion 2017
System Brick veneer, glass curtain wall, frameless glass wall, precast concrete fins
Products Sioux City Architectural Brick, prefinished metal cornice custom fabrication by Sentry Steel, Inc., Old Castle Series 3000 Storefront System (east and west wings), Old Castle Reliance Curtain Wall System (entry curtain wall, upper lecture hall northwest curtain wall, and south-facing fritted glass curtain wall), Trulite frameless glass wall (atrium), precast colored concrete fins manufactured by Hieb Concrete Products Inc.

The building’s massing is composed of two equal volumes on the east and west of a central atrium. Both volumes are of the same height and footprint of the houses in the neighborhood. Each portion is clad with brick veneer and glass curtain wall, while the atrium facade is a frameless glass wall. A custom-fabricated metal cornice reminiscent of the Italianate-style caps the whole building. DPAW detailed the two brick volumes based on the programmatic needs of the interior. The east portion of the building contains the archives and has an expansive north-facing glass curtain wall that allows for ample indirect daylight. On the west, the facade articulates the fenestration with smaller openings and encloses two stacked event halls. The horizontal panel joints on the brick veneer continue the elevation lines from the surrounding context and recede as the building increases in height. At most of the curtain wall, DPAW included curved precast concrete fins on either side of the openings. The color and striation of the concrete matches the adjacent brick paneling. These fins express the flatness of construction of brick veneer and contrast the load-bearing masonry walls of the surrounding brick buildings. The atrium between the east and west volumes is a continuation of the exterior plaza leading up to the entry of the building. A frameless glass wall with spider fittings and glass fins clads the space, opening up the facade to an unimpeded view of the monumental wood-slat stairs in the interior. Drawing inspiration again from the surrounding buildings, DPAW detailed this stair as a contemporary interpretation of the older, elaborate wood staircases. Due to its historic nature, the neighborhood’s residents met the project with initial backlash. DPAW coordinated with the city’s Landmark Commission on the design and detailing of the facade. They worked to ensure that it fit within the historic context without being a faux imitation of the existing architecture. Furthermore, the project team worked with the builders and contractors to push the envelope of standard construction and detailing to arrive at their clean facade.

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