Hanson Brick products featured in BIA 2008 Brick in Architecture winning project

TULSA, OK, July 7, 2008

• Company's ability to create products to match brick on 82-year-old sanctuary key to continuing church's art deco architectural tradition

Parish of Christ the King has been awarded a Brick Industry Association 2008 Brick in Architecture Award in the house of worship category for its new 50-person Mary Queen of Peace chapel. The chapel features a light brown, vertical scratch face, clay brick specially produced by Hanson Brick to match the brick used on the church's main sanctuary, which was designed and built in 1926 by Chicago architect Francis Barry Byrne.

The design of the new chapel reflects the art deco style established on the church's campus by Byrne, a tradition emulated by a succession of architects commissioned to expand the church and its school through the years. Because the new chapel is located on the south side of the old sanctuary, architect Greg Ward AIA, principal and president of Cyntergy AEC in Tulsa, decided the brick must accurately match the existing scratch face brick produced in 1926.

"We didn't want to simply create a chapel that would look like the old building, we wanted to make it feel like it was built 80 years ago," said Ward, who designed the new building, along with a new gymnasium and preschool clad in the same brick.

"We wanted the new chapel to feel like it had always been there and that made it a fun challenge especially when it came to matching the brick."

Ryder Brick, a Tulsa brick distributor, found a Hanson product, a light brown brick called V310, but it had a velour face, so Hanson's Athens, Texas, plant was tasked with the challenge of creating a vertical scratch face texture that matched that on the brick from 1926.

"Every manufacturer's scratch face is a little different and we were initially concerned about how it would look because the shadows created by the scratch might be a little different," said Doug Croudy, architectural sales manager with Ryder Brick. "It came out immaculate and the lesson we learned is that it's worth working for the match."

Wayne Turnage, plant manager at Hanson's Athens Plant, dug into storage to find the piece of equipment the company had previously used to create scratch texture when it was popular 20-30 years ago.

"Usually when it comes to texture and brick we try to hang on to equipment because you never know when someone's going to want something like this," he said. "Old run sheets help too, because they tell you the exact process for making a particular brick."

In addition to matching the brick, Ward incorporated the same intricate brick detailing that Byrne and successive architects used. The finished building includes offsets around the windows and corbelling near the roofline.

"This project had a lot of fancy detailing in a concentrated space, which was challenging," said Masonry Foreman Derek Abbott of Brazeal Masonry in Tulsa. "It's nice to finish a job like this and have it match an old building the way it does. A lot of times we try to match an older building and it always seems to stand out. Here the brick matched, so the chapel looks like it was built back in 1926."

"Brazeal Masonry is the real hero of this project," Ward said. "You don't see many buildings constructed today with this type of brick detailing and they took care to get it right."

Parish of Christ the King - Mary Queen of Peace Chapel will be featured along with the other 2008 Brick in Architecture Award winners in the fall 2008 Brick in Architecture special issue, Brick News Online and in a special insert of Architectural Record magazine.

Hanson Brick is North America's largest brick manufacturer offering more than 1,000 styles of brick in five regional collections in the United States and Canada.

Hanson Brick is part of Hanson Building Products - Lightside, a leading manufacturer of clay and concrete brick, concrete roof tile and concrete paving stones and retaining walls. Individually or together, Hanson cladding, roofing and hardscape products are durable, beautiful and give residential and commercial creations lasting curb appeal.

Hanson Building Products North America is part of the HeidelbergCement Group, which employs 70,000 people across five continents and has leading positions in concrete and heavy building products and is the global leader in aggregates.

Further information on Hanson Build Products - Lightside can be found at www.hansonrooftile.com, www.hansonhardscapes.com or www.hansonbrick.com.

  back