Brick Award Spotlight: Carmel City Center

Construction under the central flush fountain in Hanover Square called for the pavers to be mortar set over a waterproof base.

In August 2010, the first phase of Indiana's Carmel City Center development brought 62,000 square feet of commercial space and luxury apartments to the Indianapolis suburb.

The project's design team, led by Pedcor Design Group (PDG), chose clay pavers for the plazas, streets, and public ways to match the brick on the exterior walls of the surrounding buildings. Seismic design considerations required separating the buildings from walkways and streets, and setting the parking garage below an elevated plaza deck.

The resulting paver design was so complex that the craftsmen laid a matrix of 42 unique paver sizes and patterns using seven different colors. The walkways and street expansion systems also integrated pavers and a setting bed into the overall design.

At wet areas around the flush, central fountain of Hanover Square, pavers were mortar set over a rubber polymer waterproof membrane. Expansion joints were included in the pavement design to accommodate paver movement and create a watertight condition.

The Brick in Architecture-award-winning Carmel City Center includes luxury apartments and commercial space sited on two acres of clay-paved city streets, a roundabout, and urban plazas punctuated with fountains.

Engineered slopes were necessary to accommodate both pedestrian usage and integration of the fountain equipment into the plaza construction. Except at the fountain, the pavers were set on a bituminous setting bed.

The Carmel City Center development and its team, including PDG, project builder and brick mason Smock Fansler Corporation, and paver manufacturer The Belden Brick Company was named Best in Class by the Brick Industry Association for Paving and Landscape Architecture Design in the 2012 Brick in Architecture Awards.