The Carmel medical center from its approach road in 2019, brick bays and a limestone tower above the emergency department canopy
Case File 307

Lightening Dark Brick at Carmel Medical Center

Areas of the brick on this medical center came out darker than the range around them. The company that made the brick paid to have the dark areas lightened in 2004. It was photographed again fifteen years later and certified then.

Case No. 307
Structure Medical center
Location Carmel, Indiana
Stained 2004
Re-photographed 2019
Elapsed 15 years, Gold level

2004

  1. The medical center still under construction in 2004, tall window bays set in orange brick above a limestone base, with a Masonry Cosmetics pickup parked at the wall During, 2004 View this photo larger
  2. Close view of an outside brick corner in 2004, the units reading as one red range across both faces with pale mortar joints After, 2004 View this photo larger

What was wrong

Areas of the brick came out dark. Nothing had failed and nothing was dirty; some of the units sat outside the range the rest of the wall was running. The file records it in nine words: there were areas of dark brick in the range.

The brick manufacturer hired the work, not the owner and not the mason. The company that made the brick treated the color of a building it had supplied as its own problem, and paid for staining rather than tear-out.

What was done

Mineral stain, brushed on by hand. The dark units were lightened into the range of the brick around them rather than the wall being taken to one flat color, which is why the finished elevation still reads as a range. The line in the file is: we lightened the dark areas.

2019, fifteen years on

  1. The medical center from its approach road in 2019, brick bays and a limestone stair tower rising above the emergency department canopy, with IU Health North Hospital lettering on the curved link block 2019 View this photo larger
  2. The same elevation seen through evergreens from further back in 2019, the brick holding one range across the full height of the block 2019 View this photo larger
  3. Looking up the brick and glass bays in 2019, the brick an even red range from the limestone base to the top floor 15 Years After View this photo larger
  4. The brick bays above the emergency department entrance in 2019, the units reading as one range across four floors of glazing 2019 View this photo larger

What fifteen years prove

Same building, same brick, and a range that still holds together at the entrance and across the upper bays. On the certification scale fifteen years and over is Gold. As of 2026 the work is twenty-two years old, and the 2019 certification is the most recent record on it.

The signed file

Every certified job gets the same form, signed on the day someone goes back to the building. This is the one for case 307, transcribed beside the scan so it can be read on a phone and by a search engine.

Scan of the case study form for case 307, filled in and signed View the signed form full size
Project name
Carmel Medical Center (2004)
Level
Gold. The scale runs Bronze at seven to nine years, Silver at ten and over, Gold at fifteen and over, Platinum at twenty and over.
Hired by
The brick manufacturer
Reason for project
Complaint or problem
Issue
"There were areas of dark brick in the range."
What was corrected
"We lightened the dark areas."
Storyline
"The customer was unhappy with the areas of dark brick in the range so they hired us and we were able to lighten them to the customers liking."
Authorized
Donald A. Foster, signed, dated 2019
Address
Withheld on the form: "Permission needed to release address."
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