They range from a contemporary multifamily residential property to a campus of new office buildings modeled in Neoclassical and Colonial Revival styles to a university’s modern obelisk-like clock and bell tower. But there exist common threads between such diverse projects — the abundant use of fired-clay brick and recent recognition from the Brick Industry Association. The BIA has announced 32 winners for this year’s Brick in Architecture Awards, with designations of Best in Class, Gold, Silver and Bronze in seven categories. We take a closer look at the projects named Best in Class — and the masonry specialists and manufacturers who helped them achieve this honor.
COMMERCIAL
Old Parkland Campus, Dallas
(Architect: Beck Architecture; mason contractor: DMG Masonry)
Old Parkland Campus; photography by Casey Dunn
Originally the site of the City of Dallas’s municipal hospital, the campus was acquired by Crow Family Holdings and supplemented with two new buildings. Because the owner had a passion for early American masonry, the project team made multiple visits to historical references such as Colonial Williamsburg and Monticello before devising the masonry scope and details, which comprised more than 500,000 handmade bricks with five different blends.
Old Parkland Campus; photography by Casey Dunn
Masonry clads various floors of the three buildings — Commonwealth, Oak Lawn and Parkland Hall — in Flemish bond patterns combined with V-joint, glazed headers in diamond or random pattern, or grapevine joint.
Old Parkland Campus; photography by Casey Dunn
EDUCATIONAL (Higher Education)
Prairie View A&M Agriculture and Business, Prairie View, Texas
(Architect: Overland Partners; manufacturer: Acme Brick Company; mason contractor: Camarata Masonry Systems)
Prairie View A&M Agriculture and Business; photography by Richard Payne FAIA
The university’s new 90,000-square-foot Agriculture and Business center is a four-story L-shaped building and, as it’s situated at the heart of the campus, is a focal point designed to maintain the school’s history and culture. The building is also home to the campus’s first clock tower, which houses an inset clock at the top and a second clock face mounted directly to the brick lower on the building.
Prairie View A&M Agriculture and Business; photography by Richard Payne FAIA
The project incorporates 217,075 modular bricks, 6,100 square feet of honed basalt and 5,622 square feet of honed limestone, mostly arranged in an intriguing and variegated horizontal stripe or striated pattern that almost evokes fine textiles.
Prairie View A&M Agriculture and Business; photography by Richard Payne FAIA
EDUCATIONAL (K–12)
Intermediate School 230Q Annex, Queens, New York
(Architect: John Ciardullo Associates; manufacturers: Watsontown Brick, Redland Brick; mason contractor: Eurotech Construction)
Intermediate School 230Q Annex; photography by Anna-Marie Kellen
This four-story annex was built to relieve overcrowding in an existing middle school across the street. The steel-framed and concrete-slab structure features a brick and block vented cavity wall that contextually blends in with the historic residential neighborhood the school is located in (Jackson Heights) by using contemporary adaptations of familiar styles, simple façade elements and patterns.
Intermediate School 230Q Annex; photography by Anna-Marie Kellen
Features include a striped pattern of alternating red- and buff-colored brick to define the base, a decorative band of cast stone that wraps the building, a parapet with regular diapered or diamond-shaped pattern and striped brickwork that forms the entrance setback and encloses stair towers on the north and south elevations.
Intermediate School 230Q Annex; photography by Anna-Marie Kellen
HEALTHCARE
Baylor Surgical Hospital at Forth Worth, Texas
(Architect: Page Southerland Page; mason contractor: ROC Construction)
Baylor Surgical Hospital at Forth Worth; photography by Peter Calvin
This new ground-up facility sits on a former brownfield site, addressing both the outgrowth of a main medical facility and Fort Worth’s recent urbanization efforts. Geometric patterns such as the golden ratio and fractals inspired various aspects of the new building’s design, including the masonry façade’s changes in relief and texture. This façade design also allows a fractal pattern to be experienced from different vantage points.
Baylor Surgical Hospital at Forth Worth; photography by Peter Calvin
MUNICIPAL/GOVERNMENT
Millwood Fire Station, Millwood, New York
(Architect: Ohlhausen DuBois Architects; manufacturer: Yankee Hill Brick; mason contractor: Bella Management Group)
Millwood Fire Station; photography by Mark DuBois
The new 18,000-square-foot fire station, serving a volunteer firefighter company founded in 1924, is constructed of a steel frame with a brick and block cavity wall system.
Millwood Fire Station; photography by Mark DuBois
Bricks of four different shades — Yankee Hill’s Mojave bricks — form elegant horizontal patterning on solid walls. Clay brick also clads long, low walls that extend into the landscape and create terraces at several levels.
Millwood Fire Station; photography by Mark DuBois
RESIDENTIAL (Multifamily)
46-09 Eleventh Street, Long Island City, New York
(Architect: GF55 Partners; manufacturer: Endicott Clay Products Company; mason contractor: MC&O Contracting)
© Timothy Hutto
46-09 Eleventh Street; photography by Timothy Hutto
With a mix of regular and affordable housing units, this six-story multifamily project is a contemporary brick building that recalls this area’s heritage as a neighborhood of industrial warehouses.
46-09 Eleventh Street; photography by Timothy Hutto
To give the building a modern treatment, the project team specified Endicott Brick’s Manganese Ironspot Smooth Thinbrick, which has a dark appearance that shifts as it reflects light throughout the day. The masonry units were also installed specially around the entrance and corners of the building to appear as pixels.
46-09 Eleventh Street; photography by Timothy Hutto
RESIDENTIAL (Single Family)
New Georgian Revival Home, Greenwich, Connecticut
(Architect: Charles Hilton Architects; manufacturer: Glen-Gery Corporation; mason contractor: Nick and Gino Vona)
New Georgian Revival Home; photography by Robert Benson and Nicholas Rotondi
To blend into the historic community it’s located in, this project was designed in 18th-century Georgian revival fashion, which called for the warmth of red clay brick. Most of the façade’s units were therefore handmade oversized to accurately represent brick of this period.
New Georgian Revival Home; photography by Robert Benson and Nicholas Rotondi
Bricks were set in a Flemish bond pattern and paired with grapevine joints that add visual complexity. In addition to the handmade rectangular units, a variety of shaped bricks accentuates and decorates, ranging from bay panels and round lintels to corbelling at the chimney cap.