With a name synonymous with the term “sports car,” the Porsche brand is legendary for the marvels of its engineering, cutting-edge innovation and gorgeous design.

The new building housing Gaudin Porsche in Southwest Las Vegas honors that tradition and lives up to the billing.

The modern look of the structure, including the aesthetic delivered by the CMU, is striking! Truly an example of Expect More!

Nothing that’s worthwhile comes easy, however. The design and installation required to achieve such a stunning look presented challenges, including the masonry work. Just the type of challenges the Hirschi Masonry team lives for!

The modern look of the building called for the CMU to be installed in a stack bond pattern. In the most common block pattern, the blocks are staggered in a half bond – the joints in each row are placed over the center of the blocks in the row below.

In the stack bond pattern, the joints of each row are lined up vertically. While this installation achieves a very modern and spectacular aesthetic, it presents challenges in design and construction.

Overlapping the CMU provides inherent strength to a wall. Especially when rebar and/or grout are added to the cells adjacent blocks become locked together. When the blocks don’t overlap, the mortar is the only natural bond to adjacent blocks so the walls must be engineered differently to maintain the necessary strength.

This presents challenges not just for engineers and designers but for installers as well. Experience, training, knowledge and a commitment to Expect More become especially valuable.

In addition to this challenge, the Gaudin Porsche project involved multiple colors, many different walls, surfaces and rooms, as well as hundreds of embeds and other details to attach trusses and other structural elements to the walls our team constructed. The project also required the submittal of samples for testing during construction. The Hirschi Masonry foreman is shown preparing samples in one of the pictures below.

Living up to the challenge and building something worthy of a legendary reputation – it’s why we Expect More!