Overview of Not Just Another Brick in the Wall
Roman Mars explores the history, design, and cultural meaning of brick through Chicago’s architecture, especially the Monadnock Building and the work of brick historian Will Quam. The episode shows how brick helped remake Chicago after the Great Fire, how industrialization transformed brickmaking, and why brick remains such an enduring symbol of permanence, craft, and urban identity—even though it has largely stopped being a structural material.
The Monadnock Building as a Brick Landmark
The episode opens with Chicago’s Monadnock Building, a striking example of late 19th-century masonry architecture.
Why it stands out
- Built in 1891, it is the tallest masonry skyscraper in the world.
- Its walls are extremely thick at the base, because the structure supports itself entirely with brick.
- The building feels heavy, seamless, and almost monolithic.
- Deep-set windows and rounded corners emphasize the mass of the brick rather than decoration.
Why it matters
- The Monadnock captures brick at its architectural peak: functional, beautiful, and structurally essential.
- A later addition to the building uses a steel frame, showing the transition from brick as structure to brick as cladding and fireproofing.
Chicago, the Great Fire, and the Rise of Common Brick
Will Quam explains how Chicago became a brick city almost by accident and necessity.
Before the fire
- Chicago was originally a largely wooden city because wood was cheap and plentiful.
After the Great Fire of 1871
- The fire destroyed a third of the city and left a third of residents homeless.
- Rebuilding created massive demand for cheap, fast, durable building materials.
- Chicago was sitting on abundant clay deposits left by ancient glacial lakes, making it ideal for brick production.
Chicago Common Brick
- Chicago’s local clay contained stones, pebbles, and impurities, producing irregular, blotchy bricks.
- These became known as Chicago Common Brick.
- They were often considered ugly, but they were durable, plentiful, and practical.
- The episode highlights the irony that Chicago’s “ugly” brick became the material of a rebuilt metropolis.
How Brickmaking Changed
The episode traces the shift from handmade brick to industrial production.
Traditional brickmaking
- Bricks were once made by hand from mud, straw, and sand.
- They were dried and fired in labor-intensive processes.
- Quality varied widely; making a good brick was partly a matter of luck.
Industrial brickmaking
- Machines like pug mills and presses radically increased output.
- A skilled handmaker could produce about 5,000 bricks a day.
- Early industrial machinery could produce tens of thousands of bricks per hour.
- This made mass rebuilding after the fire possible.
Brick as Geography
One of the episode’s most interesting ideas is that bricks tell a geographic story.
Different clays, different bricks
- Chicago clay produced rough, pebbly, soot-darkening bricks.
- St. Louis clay produced smoother, richer red bricks.
- Ohio and western Pennsylvania produced iron-spot bricks with metallic speckling.
- Texas produced softer pink bricks.
Why this matters
- Brick is shaped by local geology.
- In Chicago, the face brick on many buildings was often imported, so a single street can become a map of regional brick sources.
Brick’s Shift From Structure to Decoration
A major theme is the way brick changed in the 20th century.
From load-bearing to ornamental
- Historically, brick was a structural material: it held buildings up.
- As steel framing took over, brick became an outer layer rather than the skeleton.
- Brick was still used for fireproofing and visual effect, but not as the main support.
Why the change happened
- After World War II, labor costs made brick masonry expensive.
- Concrete block and cinder block were faster and cheaper to install.
- Brick manufacturing declined sharply:
- 1954: 10 Chicago common-brick companies
- 1964: 5
- 1970: 2
- 1981: the last U.S. common-brick plant closed
Brick today
- Modern brick is mostly face brick: decorative, symbolic, and aesthetic.
- It is used to suggest history, permanence, luxury, or “traditional” character.
- Architects may use it more like a visual language than a structural necessity.
Why Brick Still Resonates
The episode argues that brick persists because it is easy to understand, physically tangible, and emotionally durable.
Cultural meanings of brick
- “Brick by brick,” “brick and mortar,” and similar phrases show how deeply the material sits in everyday language.
- Brick symbolizes patience, craft, stability, and longevity.
- It is one of the oldest human-made building materials and remains tied to the idea of making something solid and lasting.
Roman Mars’s takeaway
- Brick is “the anti-machine”: a handmade material shaped by both intention and accident.
- Even in modern architecture, it still communicates elegance, permanence, and history.
Mortar: The Unsung Half of the Wall
In the second half of the episode, the focus shifts to mortar, which turns out to be just as important as the bricks themselves.
What mortar does
- Mortar holds bricks together.
- Traditional lime mortar also manages moisture and allows movement.
Why lime mortar works
- It absorbs water, pulling moisture out of the brick.
- It stays flexible, allowing old buildings to expand and contract without cracking.
- This flexibility is especially important in thick masonry walls like the Monadnock’s.
The problem with modern cement mortar
- Cement mortar is stronger and faster-setting, but often too rigid.
- It can trap water inside brick walls.
- That trapped moisture can lead to cracking, deterioration, and interior damage.
- Using hard modern mortar on old buildings can actually harm the brick.
Main Takeaways
- Chicago’s brick history is inseparable from the Great Fire and the city’s rebuild.
- Industrialization made brick abundant and cheap, but also shifted it from structure to surface.
- Brick is deeply local: geology shapes the look and character of each region’s masonry.
- The Monadnock Building is a kind of monument to brick’s structural era.
- Mortar is not just glue; it is part of the building’s breathing and movement system.
- For historic buildings, using the wrong mortar can cause serious damage.
Notable Insight
“Brick is the anti-machine.”
That line captures the episode’s central idea: brick is both a product of human craft and a symbol of endurance, even in an age of steel, concrete, and prefabrication.