Masonry Magazine March 1968 Page. 8
BLOK-LOK® or THIN JOINT™ for horizontal reinforcing in masonry walls.
A Pearl In The Heart of Chicago's Loop
(continued from page 7)
Tests by researchers at Illinois Institute of Technology found it suitable for exterior use.
More than 35 million pounds or 900 truckloads of Pearl Grey granite will be required for the 625,000 square feet of facing. In all, some 20,000 pieces-with the heaviest weighing about 2½ tons will be shipped to the site of The First National Bank's 60-story skyscraper in the geographic center of Chicago's Loop.
After installation on the unique A-shaped building, scheduled for completion early in 1969, the granite's color will appear to passers-by to be light grey, although close inspection will reveal a sharply defined mixture of grey, black, pink and white crystals or veins. Its surface will be textured-not polished-with the crystals retaining their natural reflectivity.
Soaring 850 feet above Chicago's business and financial district, The First National Bank's new building will add a distinguished and distinctive chapter to the city's architectural resurgence, with an exterior more than a billion years old.
The heaviest of the granite slabs for the facing of the A-shaped, 60-story First National Bank of Chicago weighs as much as 21/2 tons. When the last of 20,000 pieces of granite are anchored onto the steel columns of the building, these bricklayers will be working 850 feet above Chicago's Loop.
TRI-LOK™ for greater tensille restraint.
ECONO-LOK for composite masonry walls.
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