Mailbag question: Brickwork at Michigan Stadium

I like reading your blog. I think it’s one of the best one’s out there.

One question I have is about the pictures of the Michigan Stadium “Big House”, and the bricks they are using to cover the exterior.

I know that you don’t have anything to do with the project , but I just thought it was suppose to be a brighter color of bricks they would use. It looks very dull, and cheap. It just does not look that good. What do you think?

The link that I have here is what I thought the brickwork would look like.

Thank you for your time.

veracityoflove from GBW

http://www.umaec.umich.edu/projects/Stadium/design.html

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Thanks for the question.

Well I am in the commercial construction business and work with bricklayers. Quick history my grandfather, father, uncle, and myself were/are all in the masonry field with my brother and other uncle as carpenters so I have been around it all my life.

Anyway, I understand what your saying, but one thing to remember is the pictures they are showing are computer generated and probably at the time they were done, they did not have the pick of the brick out.

In addition, I think in those pictures it actually shows the brick better and of the two different types of brick where you can see the darker colored (soldier course) which mean they stand them up instead of sideways or normal length wise lighter colored ones (running bond) in those computer pictures.

Now as far as the brickwork you see right now you need to remember that they still have to clean the brick, which means they use a product called “sure clean” that is a general purpose, concentrated acidic cleaner for brick surfaces. Dissolves mortar smears and construction dirt quickly, leaving the masonry clean and uniform with no acid burning or streaking. It removes excess mortar, mud, heavy efflorescence, embedded stains, etc.

So in another words it will look cleaner, brighter, and will look a lot better once this is done. Which I am assuming looking at what they have done so far they will or should have all the outside brickwork done this summer and should all be cleaned and finished before the first game this year.

Now if you looked through several of the pictures and see this one a close up and see the design of the brick you will be able to see the two different patterns and also the two different types of brick.

One thing they have done and I like is they have made all their athletic campus renovations near the stadium the same brick or very close to it. If you look at the Wilpon Complex (Softball and Baseball stadiums), Junge center, Ross Academic center, Michigan football new field house, and Michigan Stadium are all the same brick or close enough that the normal eye would not tell.

If you look at some of these pictures will show some of the brick cleaned up and what it will look like once it is completed.

Also if you look at the E-Labels on the right-hand side of the blog and look under “Michigan Stadium Pictures” and “Michigan Fieldhouse Pictures” you will be able to see all the pictures that have been on this blog.

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If you have any questions please e-mail erocwolverine@gmail.com

Written by ErocWolverine