Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1408886
50 | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1 Masonry mega-redevelopment of the former Rheingold Brewery site. In 2020, Lemay + Escobar used Arriscraft's ALSB on the new Charlie West Condos in the downtown Hell's Kitchen neighbourhood in New York City. Arriscraft has enjoyed ever- increasing demand for this new long brick in the commercial market throughout North America on a wide range of projects, including several Starbucks locations in the U.S. Northeast, a rural dental office in Quebec, and the iconic Pier 4 resi- dential building in Boston Harbor that has become a new landmark in the area. Since 2016, when Boral Bricks and Forterra Brick came together to form Meridian Brick, Meridian has become well known as a comprehensive building material resource, with a distribution network of 30 sales centres providing Brick, Thin Brick, Stone, Stucco + EIFS, and installation systems to its clients. Meridian's stated goal has always been to bring clients' visions to life, and this resulted in the 5551 Wellington project in Montreal earning the company a Residential Multi-Family Gold award from the Brick Industry Association, for contributing to a carefully structured design that appeals to an urbanistic lifestyle, while melding with the surrounding architecture. Full depth brick was determined to be the best solution for this new build project so that it would integrate with surrounding brick properties. To dif- ferentiate the project from other masonry-clad residences in the area, Adhoc Architectes designed four buildings using eight custom blends, 10 products, and 120,000 bricks. Each building incorporated two different custom blends to ensure that no two buildings were alike. Carefully curated blends on each building were chosen according to the immediate neighbouring buildings, providing pleasing continuity and historical context. The use of Basalite Concrete Masonry Units (CMUs) rose to prominence dur- ing the decades-long building boom in northern California as well as because of advances in building design and changes in architectural preference. Today, Basalite manufactures hundreds of types and styles of concrete structural block and often works with architects to create effects that showcase building design. Unnati Billimoria, Basalite's architectural sales representative, notes that her company's ground face units (ground to expose the natural colour of the aggregates) have been used to tremendous effect of late in a variety of projects. "The Duke apartment building on Kingsway in Vancouver has a unique ground face veneer: the design uses 10 different panel sizes and permutations, which are applied and repeated to form a striking pattern," she says. "We rarely see concrete blocks on a facade, but the Duke's designers, Acton Ostry Architects, used them brilliantly." Interestingly, The Duke is being marketed as "The perfect sanctuary for dreamers" and young families. Billimoria adds that The Duke is significant in that "We manufactured the blocks locally, so there was a substantial cost savings for the developers. Basalite's advantage is that we can manipulate and customize according to any design specs." Specifically, as Basalite has several manufacturing plants on the west coast, closest being in Washington state, it enhances their capacity for creating new mix designs, colour matchings, mould sharing (imperial and metric blocks), and innovations like Integral Water Repellent (IWR), Carbon sequestering, "And we formulate it on the spot," she says. "It's a tremendously efficient way of supplying custom masonry to clients." In the U.S., a notable development enhanced by Basalite products is the Wellness Center of San Francisco's City College. This project utilizes clever vertical stacking to allow for 156,000 square feet of program space into a very small foot- print, and the building's LEED-equivalent design by K2A Architecture + Interiors includes Ground Face CMUs incorporated with floor-to-ceiling windows. Finally, as the representative of top tier manufacturers, I-XL is the only Canadian national distributor specializing in architectural masonry, and recently it unveiled to the public the ideal showcase for its products: a Design Centre in Toronto featuring over 2,000 square feet of samples and displays of brick, stone, plus architectural masonry products and tools. The facility also features a 28,000 square foot warehouse filled with inventory, ready to ship to clients. I-XL is constantly expanding its products offerings, and new to the company are Grey Slate Prostack by Rocky Mountain Stoneworks (designed to give a rustic, earthy feel with a natural stone finish); Silverstone Prostack (a panelized stone in a neutral grey colour palette); Black Tusk Prostack by Rocky Mountain Stoneworks (notable for its rich contrast hue); Blackcomb Prostack (which brings a rich, refined look to any project); and Aspen Castledge by Avaani Stone, a classic stone with a cream colour blend that incorporates organic texture and natural charm into any architectural feature. A Architectural Linear Series Brick Unique brick creates masterpieces Our unique calcium silicate products perform like natural stone. Our distinctive, long format Architectural Linear Series Brick delivers a modern aesthetic in a weathered, rugged finish. Available in four designer colours. Custom Colour