Sunday, November 25, 2007

C. M. U. COLOR PALETTE








They delivered the concrete masonry units on Friday. It looks like the Armory Plaza will follow the LoCiccero signature color palette used for most of their buildings. It's a dark brown antique looking brick that has a kind of hand-made quality produced by Carolina Ceramics called "Madrid". It has a lot of rich color and surface variation that changes from brick to brick.



The roughed up edges leave spaces that produce an uneven mortar joint requiring a special kind of tooling so that it doesn't look "sloppy". It's called a Grapevine joint.
I think they used this same brick at 266 22nd Street.

They like to use a red pigmented mortar that is really not my cup of tea. It starts to look a little too salmon-pink in contrast.
















"Carolina Ceramics Brick Company stakes its reputation on each brick that leaves the kilns. Since 1939, our commitment to advanced engineering has established us as one of the nation's leading suppliers of quality brick. Our innovative approach continues to broaden our product line, from an initial offering of residential firebrick to today's extensive array of colors, sizes and shapes that inspire architectural excellence."

If you have a few minutes check out this link to Carolina Ceramics web site and view the short movie showing how bricks are made in their state of the art automated factory. You don't even see a pair of human hands until almost the very end. Turn your volume up to 11 so as to hear the over the top soundtrack in all it's unabashed, testosterone infused, glory.

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