Masonry Magazine August 1974 Page. 16
1650
BURTON ABSTRACT & TITLE COMPANY
Burton Abstract & Title Company
Troy, Michigan
The Burton Abstract & Title Company headquarters in Troy, Mich., winner of a recent honor award from the Detroit chapter of the Michigan Society of Architects, demonstrates the imaginative use of masonry at its best.
Due to the long, rectangular shape of the site, zoning height restriction and Burton's long-range expansion plans, a long, narrow, two-story building resulted. Construction is of steel frame and reinforced concrete floors sheathed in brick and glass.
According to the architects, brick was used as the principal exterior material because of:
* Its relative low cost in place.
* The ease of scaffolding a two-story building.
* The versatility of adding interesting components to an essentially box-like character of a suburban office building.
* Its relation to material and color to a medical building complex directly across the road.
An Iron Spot brick was selected because of its unique character in allowing the shade side (purple) to reflect coolness and the sun side (orange) to reflect warmth. "This warm-cool quality again reinforced the crisp edges we were looking for," commented Architect Kenneth Neumann. "The hard, extruded form allowed for the sharp edges demanded by the design and also for easy cutting to build the triangular forms."
The building, which consolidates Burton's previous four-county facilities, encompasses 80,000 square feet.
masonry August, 1974