Masonry Magazine August 1983 Page. 28
Special Design Brick Plays
Key Role in Promotion Campaign
Although it has been around for several thousand years as a building material, the ubiquitous brick recently emerged in another role as the main ingredient in a novel advertising and promotion campaign to attract tenants to the new Commerce Center 270 office building in Rockville, Md., near the nation's capital.
The challenge presented to the advertising and PR agency, Govatos/Dunn, Alexandria, Va., was to prove that an unknown developer with a small advertising budget was in fact offering a top quality product.
The sleek masonry building, designed by the architectural firm Mulligan/Griffin & Associates, Inc., Rockville, features brick throughout, with maximum corner office space. The agency thus chose to send an actual corner brick-a specially manufactured, seven-sided unit costing $2.90 each to prospects as a way of introducing them to the aesthetic advantages of corner office space in the "270" project.
The brick and a promotional brochure-neatly packaged in an eye-catching black-white-and-copper box were sent to the prospective lessees. On the outside of the box, the message read: "Now you've got the makings for a corner office." and the uniquely shaped, rust-colored brick added visual impact.
The plan worked, and the results were "overwhelming," according to Joe Ritchey, marketing director of Mulligan/Griffin. He relates that many recipients called him, and all follow-up calls have met with positive response. "It was a simple, direct and unpretentious presentation. And it worked," he adds.
Another case of brick being in the right place at the right time.
All Concrete Masonry Fireplace Provides
Unique Thermal Energy Storage System
A fireplace of new technology design-rooted in the tradition of European masonry stoves more commonly called the Russian or Finnish fireplace-has been introduced by a New Jersey firm.
It is a blending of the fundamentals of heat collection, storage and distribution, with the thermal retention advantages of concrete masonry. The combined action of these elements produces an impressive result: reliable, efficient heat from an open hearth.
In addition to having energy-saving features designed into the modular sections that collect and distribute heat, exclusive use of concrete masonry provides large amounts of thermal storage capability, which means that heat will be provided long after the fire has gone out.
Taken individually, this is how the three main elements of the fireplace-called TESS, an acronym for Thermal Energy Storage System-work:
*Count Benjamin Rumford, an American-born physicist who was active in Germany, England and France, is credited with with the discovery of convection currents in 1798, and is regarded as the father of modern fireplace design. Rumford was the first person to be concerned with heat efficiency as he narrowed the throat where the fireplace merges with the chimney, a feature that slowed excessive draft, reduced heat waste, and improved the capacity of a fireplace to heat a room.
The Firebox
By modifying Count Rumford's design with the addition of the two corner walls and inclined covings, more radiant heat is brought into the room. The additional amounts of heat radiating across the fire produce higher temperatures, thus aiding combustion and reducing smoke emissions considerably.
The Chimney
Essentially, a greatly increased surface area within the flues acts as an effective heat exchanger. Two inches of poured concrete join eight separate flues to the room air circulators, thereby encasing the flues with a masonry thermal battery. Heat passes directly to this battery, where it is stored for later use.
The Circulation System
Air passages manufactured into the modular sections allow room air to enter at the base of the firebox to absorb and distribute heat into the thermal battery for later use. The air passages continue upward to the ceiling level where the warmed air is outletted into the room. The circulation system also makes possible the use of the TESS unit as a solar wall a space-and money-saving feature realized through the use of 100 percent concrete masonry.
Better management of thermal mass also means that the fireplace can function well as vertical storage in passive solar architecture. Placing the fireplace so that the rear wall of the fireplace is in direct line with the sun's rays allows the circulator system to collect and distribute heat into the upper portion of the fireplace for storage. This double-duty aspect of the fireplace blends well into the current trend toward smaller and more energy-conscious homes.
For more information, contact: Sal Vuocolo, Thermal Energy Storage Systems, Inc., Box M. Mine Rd., Kenvil, NJ 07847.