Masonry Trowel

The Building Blocks of IUSB

Carly Baker

The masonry trowel has been used for years to aid in building brick or block buildings. It is used for cutting brick and spreading cement or mortar to hold each brick together. The campus of Indiana University South Bend began construction in 1958. It was at this time that the university started to purchase some of the buildings that started IUSB. Before this, some of these buildings were owned by other companies or corporations. The administration building, for example, originally was a part of the Associates Insurance Corporation complex. The trowel represents each brick that was laid. It shows the life of the brick; how it began as one thing and is now a part of our beautiful campus. It shows the history of the campus and how it has evolved and grown with each generation. 

The beauty and appreciation of brickwork often goes unseen, however when we recognize it as a piece of history, we begin to see it in a completely different way; as art. We see it not as the building as a whole, but each individual brick and how all together they make-up the building itself and likewise how each building makes up the campus. With the use of the trowel, the creation of the campus was made. Each brick is a building block of IUSB, just as each individual student of IUSB is a building block to the university. Together we stand, united we fall.