William W. Brashear Tower

Challenge

The 9-story Brashear Tower is a senior living apartment complex that was riddled with building envelope failures and asbestos when new owners, Silver Tree Residential, took over.

They quickly contacted Saylor's Inc. to begin the design and implementation of a new façade. "We had to basically create our own curtain wall assembly, our own stud assembly, outbound of the existing asbestos panel, because the remediation of all the asbestos on the building would have been astronomical," said Jess Saylor, President of Saylor's Inc. The city of Livonia was initially hesitant to permit any exterior plastering on the first floor of the structure, which ruled out any of the Dryvit products.

Solution

Saylor had worked with Dryvit since the 1980s, so he knew of their reliable products and service. The first floor of the building was clad in NewBrick® and the upper eight stories used Outsulation® Plus MD System with Custom Brick™ and Sandpebble® finishes.

Although this was Saylor, Inc.'s first time using NewBrick, their team found it was very easy to install. Plus, the time and financial benefits far outweighed traditional clay brick. "If you took all the building components…all that time out of the building schedule, this would be way faster," Saylor explained.

The owners, residents and the city love the results. Saylor concluded, "The city's building department can't believe the transformation. And they think it's now one of the nicest looking buildings in their community versus what was, no argument, the ugliest building."