The courtyard wall of the hospital in 2019, its brick holding one tan and red range between cream precast piers
Case File 173

Darkening Grouped White Brick on a Novi Hospital

The brick on this hospital went up with too many white units grouped together. The company that made the brick paid to have them darkened back into the range around them. It was photographed again twenty-one years later and certified then.

Case No. 173
Structure Hospital
Location Novi, Michigan
Stained 1998
Re-photographed 2019
Elapsed 21 years, Platinum level

1998

  1. The courtyard wall of the hospital in 1998 with a ladder up to the second floor, the brick a pale buff over both window courses During, 1998 View this photo larger
  2. An applicator working the brick at an inside corner of the hospital in 1998, two ladders against the walls and the courses running pale buff with lighter units in groups During, 1998 View this photo larger

What was wrong

Nothing had failed and nothing was dirty. The white units in the range had come out of the kiln fine and gone up in clusters, so the wall read in patches instead of one blend. The file records it in one line: there were too many white brick in groups.

The brick manufacturer hired the work, not the hospital and not the mason. The company that supplied the brick treated the color of a finished building as its own account and paid to correct it.

What was done

Mineral stain, brushed in by hand, unit by unit, on the brick that sat outside the range. The correction ran one direction: the white units were darkened until they agreed with the brick around them. The phrase in the file is a more cohesive appearance to the building.

2019, twenty-one years on

  1. The courtyard wall of the hospital in 2019 above a curved pool and a paved terrace, two floors of brick holding one tan and red range between cream precast piers 2019 View this photo larger
  2. Two wings of the hospital meeting at the courtyard in 2019, the brick reading as one tan and red range across both floors and around the return 21 Years After View this photo larger
  3. An outside corner of the hospital in 2019 beside a recessed glazed bay and a bed of river stone, the brick holding one range from the ground to the coping 2019 View this photo larger
  4. Close view of the brick in 2019 either side of a cream precast panel with an incised circle, the courses running red, tan and buff with no group of one color 2019 View this photo larger

What twenty-one years prove

Same building, same courtyard, and a wall that still holds one range across both floors. On the certification scale that is Platinum, which covers twenty years and over. As of 2026 the work is twenty-eight 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 173, 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 173, filled in and signed View the signed form full size
Project name
Novi Hospital (1998)
Level
Platinum. 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 too many white brick in groups."
What was corrected
"We darkened some of the white brick throughout the building."
Storyline
"The amount of white brick in the range was unnacceptable, so we stained most of the white brick to a darker color to give a more coheasive appearance to the building."
Address
Left blank, printed "Permission needed to release address."
Authorized
Donald A. Foster, signed, dated 2019
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