The Lincoln School classroom wing in 2019, its brick an even red and brown range across the elevation
Case File 250

Breaking Up Flat Brick Runs at Lincoln School in Ohio

The architect rejected the brick on this Ohio school after it was laid, because large groups of units had come out the same color. The company that made the brick paid for two days of staining to break the runs up and even out the range. It was photographed again nineteen years later and certified then.

Case No. 250
Structure Two-story school
Location Ohio
Stained 2000
Re-photographed 2019
Elapsed 19 years, Gold level

2000

  1. An outside corner of the single-story wing in 2000, the brick one flat tan with almost no variation between units During, 2000 View this photo larger
  2. The two-story front of the school in 2000 with a flagpole and a ladder set against the wall, the brick a single uniform tan During, 2000 View this photo larger

What was wrong

The brick went up and the architect turned it down. Nothing had failed and nothing was dirty. The file records the issue in five words: the architect rejected the brick. Large groups of units had fired to the same color, so long stretches read flat instead of as a range.

It was hired by the brick manufacturer, not the school and not the mason. A brick company decided the color of a building it had supplied was its own problem, and paid for staining over tear-out.

What was done

Two days on site. Mineral stain brushed on by hand, unit by unit, some units lightened and others darkened so the matched runs broke up. Not one color over the wall: the phrase in the file is an even blend to the range.

2019, nineteen years on

  1. The long two-story classroom elevation seen from the parking lot in 2019, the brick reading as one mixed red and brown range the length of the wall 2019 View this photo larger
  2. The covered entrance courtyard in 2019, a carved stone panel reading The Lincoln School set into blended red and brown brick 2019 View this photo larger
  3. A wall under the entrance canopy in 2019, its brick a mixed range of red, tan and dark brown units with pale mortar joints 19 Years After View this photo larger
  4. Close view of the blended brick in 2019, no two neighboring units the same, in reds, tans and browns 2019 View this photo larger

What nineteen years prove

Same building, and the range is still a range. On the certification scale nineteen years is Gold, which covers fifteen and over. As of 2026 the work is twenty-six 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 250, 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 250, filled in and signed View the signed form full size
Project name
OH School (2000)
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
"The architect rejected the brick."
What was corrected
"We had to lighten and darken the brick."
Storyline
"The architect was not pleased with how the brick looked after being installed. We were hired for two days to break up large groups of brick that were all the same color and add an even blend to the range."
Authorized
Donald A. Foster, signed, dated 2019
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