Chicago is fortunate to have thousands and thousands of historic homes, and plenty of history lovers who want to live in them! Built in the late 19thcentury, this Lakeview property was built to last with sturdy walls of local common brick.
Unfortunately, at some point in the mid-20th century, this charming little house fell prey to the plague of “formstone“. Filmmaker John Waters once called this cracker-like material — made of shale, lime, and water pressed into molds — the “polyester of brick,” and it was marketed to homeowners as a “maintenance-free” way to modernize vintage buildings. Yikes!
As you might imagine, formstone and its co-conspirators (looking at you, faux brick asphalt siding, aka “Inselbric”) weren’t the forever fix they promised to be. The material quickly fell out of fashion, and most applications aged poorly and damaged the underlying masonry.
The story of this residence has a happy ending, however! In 2014, its new owners painstakingly removed the aging synthetic facade and replaced it with a carefully selected batch of our “Medium Pink” reclaimed brick. Restored to its former glory with an age-appropriate material matching the structure’s original design, this beautiful home makeover allows us to forget its decades of distress!
LOCATION: Lakeview, Chicago
ARCHITECT: SPACE Architects + Planners
GC: Tercon Builders
INSTALLER: The Dream Wall Inc
PRODUCT SUPPLIED: Reclaimed “medium pink”
Categories: Reclaimed Materials, Residential Single Family, Historic Preservation + Adaptive Reuse
