Case Western Reserve University’s Clark Hall

Clark Hall’s History

Clark Hall is a Queen Anne-style building on the CWRU campus. It was originally designed by Richard Morris Hunt in 1892 as the Mather College. 

The Project

In 2015, Case Western Reserve University and the College of Arts and Sciences decided to begin a historic restoration of Clark Hall. It contained classrooms, a library and administrative offices. It’s original brick exterior was connected to an inner masonry wall with iron ties. Such ties rusted over time and without their support, the original brick skin began to “slump”. 

For years, netting has covered the Clark Hall along with temporary metal ties put in place to prevent structural failure and preserve the safety of passersby until the exterior brick façade could be replaced.  

Our Solution

We needed extreme precision to accurately restore the building. The vertical coursing restraints were significant and were further exacerbated by the extremely thin mortar bed joints. This made matching up the brickwork with the surrounding original stonework and woodwork challenging.    

Tying the exterior hollow core face brick to the common brick back-up was also difficult. It required the use of custom made stainless steel anchors and a construction-strength grout mix. Custom brick shapes were also required to match the original window jams and chimney shapes. However, more than 25% of the original brick work was integrated into new brickwork