Examples
1270 Marion St, built 1965
252 Pennsylvania St, built 1971
1265 Downing St, built 1970
1783 Hudson St, built in 1928 (Bonus: a single-family home!)
Clinkers
So what is the deal with all of these lumpy-looking buildings? After much searching, and thanks to ReadReidRead's blog post, I now know. They're called clinker bricks, also known as "eccentric brickwork". Deformed bricks used to be discarded, but then in the early 1900s someone had the brilliant idea to use them in actual building facades. I'm all for using waste and byproducts, but let's just say the execution on this style isn't my favorite. Used sparingly, clinker bricks can draw your eyes to different parts of a building. But when a majority of the facade is made with clinker bricks? It kind of looks like an inebriated person built your home.
It appears as though this trend didn't make its way to Denver until the 1960s, and fell out of favor by the end of the 1970s. While there are a few homes built with clinker bricks from earlier (see the single-family example above), the apartment buildings made with clinkers are all from the 1960s and 1970s.
Thanks to automated manufacturing, there are fewer clinkers being made today by accident. Unfortunately, it appears as though some companies actually make clinker bricks on purpose.
Sources and More Examples
- https://readreidread.wordpress.com/2013/10/04/what-are-clinker-bricks/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinker_brick
- http://www.oldhouseonline.com/guide-to-clinker-bricks/
- http://www.historicalbricks.com/products/antique-building-materials/clinker-brick
- http://www.oldhousejournal.com/exteriors_savvy_clinker_bricks/magazine/1495
- https://www.flickr.com/photos/pnmaryf/5193648485/
- http://www.berkeleyside.com/2010/07/14/where-in-berkeley-24/
- http://planetreuse.com/collections/price-asc-building-material/products/74#.VQm5dOH-mpQ
*I put style in quotes, because I am not sold on their execution of such.
Reminds me of some of the buildings in Ukraine! (http://8monthsinukraine.blogspot.com/2015/03/bricks.html) But those were more like "no one paid any attention to upkeep for 40 years" :p
ReplyDeleteHaha, lumpy for different reasons! The purposefully lumpy buildings look somewhat dated to me, which could be in part because they look like they're in disrepair.
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