Masonry Magazine October 1973 Page. 16
KRANZ SE LAUS
Brick panels arrive at the job site in Kansas City, some 250 miles from the assembly plant in St. Louis. The smaller sections with marble chip facing at the rear of the trailer were hung above and below the window openings on the finished building.
In a report to the International Masonry Institute (IMI) in Washington, D.C., BM&PIU Local 4 Business Agent Bob Thomas of Kansas City said. "The work was totally acomplished by BM&PIU masonry craftsmen, and this included the welding, rigging and setting of the brick panels." Masonry Systems of Missouri, Inc. of St. Louis, one of
D
The use of brick panels was specified by Lloyd Thorpe, engineer for Bryan Development, as the most economical approach to the job. Speed of erection also meant savings on construction loan interest and a stepped-up financial return on the building through earlier occupancy.
the pioneering firms in the panelization movement, had BM&PIU bricklayers lay the brick in the panels in the conventional manner using high-strength Sarabond mortar additive in its St. Louis panel plant, where work continues in all types of weather.
Approximately 140,000 utility-size, reddish brown, 4x4-x12, brick manufactured by Alton Brick Co., Galesburg, III., were laid into the panels by the union bricklayers. They also made all of the white panels above and below the windows in the medical building by panelizing culled brick, spreading epoxy over them and then sprinkling them with marble chips.
The 660 panels, with a combined weight of around 4½ million pounds, were transported 250 miles by truck to the Kansas City job site at 68th and Troost. Upon delivery. the Harless Stone Construction Co., which served as erector on the job, took over with the bricklayers. As many as six masons were at work each day hanging and setting the panels on the 120,000 sq. ft. steel-frame structure.
In designing the pace-setting building for owner and general contractor Hugh Bryan of Bryan Development Co., Prairie Village, Kans., the architectural and engineering firm of Ralph F. Oberlechner Associates had several priorities. Competitive cost had to be a deciding factor, so brick was specified for the walls. Bryan Development wanted speedy erection and the resultant savings on construction loan interest, thus the masonry panel system was chosen.
As a result, the architect used a product that dates back to man's earliest construction but is so flexible it can be combined with one of the newest building techniques.
"It's a beautiful job. We're very proud to have been a part of building this project by our new methods," was the summation of Robert Sloss, who heads Masonry Systems of Missouri.
masonry • October, 1973