Quote:
Originally Posted by HomrQT
A question to just throw out there for anyone... are bricks a thing of the past for large construction projects? Is that era over and our current stock of these buildings are just going to slowly disappear?
|
I'm not really following when you say "and our current stock of these buildings slowly going to disappear." The city has built tons of brick structures in the past two decades. Even with all the glass towers downtown, brick probably made up the largest share of exterior envelope city-wide.
It's not really cost effective to do brick in highrise applications unless you integrate it with a precast panel. But the look and expression tends to get lost way high up which is why developers will avoid that premium and opt to use it in lowrise applications more commonly.
What will get lost over time is Chicago common brick. You can't really repurpose Chicago common as a structural wall or veneer on exteriors so it's used alot for interior partitions or repairs. Much of what you see is jumbo size masonry units or lower end CMU....despite that extremely high end CMU finishes exist in the market.
As far as standard application of brick. Tastes shift. As of late, you tend to see alot more clean, crisp and flat surfaces or else glass. Lots of stone application being done on homes these days. Sometimes wood. Brick always persists as a popular material in construction, but more present during some decades.