The upper front of Purcell Pavilion at the Joyce Center, its name cut into the stone band above the windows
Case File 058

Bringing the Purcell Pavilion Brick Into an Approved Range

The brick delivered for this building had too many light units in the range and not enough dark ones. The manufacturer remade it twice and the university rejected it both times. Thirty percent of it was stained instead.

Case No. 058
Structure University arena
Location Notre Dame, Indiana
Stained 2009
Re-photographed March 2016
Elapsed 7 years, Silver level

2009, the approval panel

  1. A freestanding brick mockup panel built in a car park with a window and cast stone sill, its brick running pale and even with almost no dark units Before View this photo larger
  2. An applicator in a hard hat brushing stain onto single brick units on the same mockup panel, with blue tape marking every unit that is to be darkened View this photo larger

What was wrong

Nothing had failed and nothing was dirty. The brick was made, rejected, remade and rejected again, and it was still the wrong range. The file states the issue in one line: too many light brick in the range and not enough dark brick.

It was hired by the mason, not the university and not the brick company. By that point the file records that the manufacturer felt they could not get any closer.

What was done

Thirty percent of the brick was stained, unit by unit, until the wall reached a range the university would approve. The two frames above are the mockup panel where that was settled before anyone touched the building. Blue tape marks each unit to be darkened, which is what staining thirty percent of a wall looks like in practice.

2016, seven years on

  1. The entrance front of Purcell Pavilion at the Joyce Center, its buff brick carrying darker units scattered evenly across the whole elevation 2016 View this photo larger
  2. The brick between two tall windows at close range, darker units scattered singly through a pale buff range across every course 2016 View this photo larger

What seven years show

The stained units are still doing the job they were mixed to do, and at close range they read as brick rather than as a coating over it. The photographs carry a capture date of March 2016, seven years after the work. The file was signed three years after that, in 2019, which on the certification scale is Silver.

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 058, 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 058, filled in and signed View the signed form full size
Project name
University of Notre Dame Purcell Pavilion (2009)
Level
Silver. 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 mason and contractor
Reason for project
Complaint or problem
Issue
"Too many light brick in the range and not enough dark brick."
What was corrected
"We stained 30% of the brick for an approved color range."
Storyline
"The brick MFG remade the brick a second time and UND still rejected the brick. The MFG felt they could not get any closer. MCI came in and stained 30% of the brick for a better match."
Authorized
Donald A. Foster, signed, dated 12 June 2019

What the range on a wall is worth to a specifier is covered on the architects and engineers page, the mechanism is in how the mineral stain system works, and what is covered afterwards is in the lifetime warranty.

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