Project Details (Brick):

Brick - A major component of the project involves the quality of the brick itself and its laying.  The brick is being custom produced by Old Carolina Brick Company of Salisbury, NC, a company familiar with the method of making brick by hand using wood molds.  In the 1820’s, brick was likely made on-site and as the mason would lay it, he would generally pull the best brick from the kilns for use on the front façade.  This was the brick most uniform in size, color and texture, with crisp edges and full body.  The more irregular and inconsistent brick was used on the building sides and in the back.  Of course today the brick we specify is typically of the same quality on all sides as manufacturing processes have dramatically changed.  However, so as to communicate this particular characteristic, Old Carolina has been instructed to produce a special blend of brick for the front façade, while other facades receive a “less-than-perfect” brick.  This characteristic can be seen on many 1820’s buildings in the country today—and is even noticeable on the Brownlee building, ca. 1840’s, which faces Cumberland St. just yards away from the Print Shop project.  

The brick will be laid in “five-course American bond” on all four sides, though other bonding techniques were certainly common in the period, such as Flemish bond, which might have been seen more commonly on front facades as it was more decorative.  The tooling of the mortar joints on the front façade will involve a more labor intensive process, practiced in the period, whereby cuts are made along the edges of each brick unit.  Tooling for the other three facades will not be as labor intensive.  This process is intended to further give the front façade a look of more perfect brick making & laying.  According to the team’s brick consultant and master mason, Ray Cannetti, “the masons of the period were illusionists- they controlled what they wanted the viewer to see in the finish product”.

A mock up of sample brick was constructed in December, 2009 to allow team members to make final adjustments to the custom brick order.  The mock up also allows local masons and builders to demonstrate understanding of methods and the way in which the building components come together, prior to actual construction.