St. Louis Brick

9/30/12

Email/Photos from Lesel - AKA Creative Thing - in Calif.

Always thinking of you...Christian. I spent Saturday walking around L.A. with old mail art pal, Michael Hyatt. I snagged these two photos for you. The art deco building is really stunning. I was only able to capture a glimpse of its beauty in this photo of the main entrance. The other one attracted me by the shadows of the fire escape. Love, C/T

Masonry and The Moon

Photos from the Harvest Moon party at the Deco Fortress last night which featured Sarah Jane & The Blue Notes - friend the band and The Deco Fortress on FB.

9/20/12

More Fire Escapes

Fire escapes on The Morrison Hotel in L.A. by friend and artists Leslie Caldera. Yes, that Morrison Hotel.

Mondrian windows and encased escape on Lucas and Hunt:

Two more via friend Darren Snow. Yes, that Darren Snow from Rocket 88:

9/7/12

Hail STL

I took these photos yesterday of a car on my block wondering if the padding was the car version of wearing a tin hat. About an hour later it occurred to me that this was an attempt to prevent hail damage. Which is plausible, we do get fist size hail.

9/3/12

Gorgeous Brickwork and Back on the Roof

This evening I was invited to The Deco Fortress for another rooftop soiree with my darlings Sarah Jane and Sam Meller. Ralph was there wearing one of Sam's City Renovators shirts.

I always marvel at the brickwork on the building next door and its wrought iron gate.

Sammy:

Ralph Meller:

And a sunset with sunbeams:

8/16/12

Crater Bricks - For Michael

I've covered this city extensively and thought I'd never encounter another intriguing brick. On a recent drive around TGS with Andrew I spied this building from his car and excitedly gasped, Look at those bricks!

Andrew laughed.

Please. Look at these bricks with their exceptional design and range of soft color. Was some of that clay imported? Most likely it was treated before being fired. And why haven't I encountered these bricks any place else in STL?

If you're a long time visitor here you know I invent names for bricks and these present as crater.

The building still retains the original stained black mortar with tiny flecks of feldspar and quartz and - gratefully - has not been repointed. Look closely and you'll see that some of the mortar had to be finger tooled into the 'craters' of the bricks.

The building counts as a Triple Arch Alert post.

For Michael who told me a fascinating story yesterday about the old tunnel under Sublette Ave.

8/9/12

So long, Gen!

Another light goes out in the neighborhood with friend Gen Obata and family moving to the NW.

8/7/12

1962 Bomb Shelter

You know I sell vintage online via Etsy, right? I'm finally loading up my vintage catalogs and spotted this page on Pre-Fab Survival Shelters which were usually referred to as Bomb Shelters. Check out the trash can. Like who gets the job of hauling that out daily, little Chris? And how about those endorsements?

8/1/12

Tinged Buff Bricks

The heat has prevented scouting but I managed to capture these outstanding orange tinged buff bricks while roaming TGS with Andrew on our reporting graffiti tour.

Former Lustron Service Station

Located on Roger Pl. in Tower Grove South.

6/26/12

Marti's Garden - Update

The Marti Frumhoff Memorial Garden is my primary volunteer project and I've been on it since 2008. I like to think Marti would approve since it's on the site of the old Parker-Russell brick yards. Marti was a fellow brick hugger. I miss her.

What's the fate of the garden I wondered three weeks ago when I noticed the street was being prepared to be repaved. Black asphalt.

Now it's a heat island with a 60% increase of radiant heat. Walking across the street to turn on the rain bird sprinklers - I do that by hand, there's no timer - is a scorching stroll. If five trees in the garden were much larger they would cast some shade to help decrease the ambient temperature. Maybe in 15 years.

I'm always removing yard sale sings from the garden but when I spotted this one today - placed over the 4 way beneath the stop sign along with their address - I decided karma may be lurking in the intersection.