Evanston's blocks mix Victorian single-families, courtyard apartment buildings, and new infill within a single sightline. We build masonry precise enough to hold its own on a streetscape that never repeats itself twice.
Between Northwestern's campus edge and the lakefront, Evanston mixes century-old frame houses, courtyard apartment buildings, and new infill on the same block. We build brick and stone construction precise enough to belong on any of them.
Evanston's blocks mix Victorian single-families, courtyard apartment buildings, and new infill within a single sightline. We build masonry precise enough to hold its own on a streetscape that never repeats itself twice.
Evanston's density means new construction gets viewed from three sides, not one — a neighbor's porch, an alley, a shared lot line. A crew that treats masonry as generic brick-and-mortar work, without reading the block it's building on, produces a facade that looks like it landed from somewhere else.
From chimney and fireplace masonry to full brick and stone veneer systems, every service below is handled by the same in-house crew — no subcontractor handoffs between the estimate and the finished wall.
Dense, mixed-era blocks reward a crew that plans around the actual lot, not a generic checklist. Here's how each step accounts for that.
We walk the lot and the block first — courtyard building next door, a 1905 four-square across the street, a teardown two doors down.
Evanston blocks rarely match house to house, so the plan follows what's next door, not just the drawings.
We spec brick, stone, and mortar tone against the streetscape — matching a century home next door, or contrasting for infill.
This is expensive to undo once the first course is laid, so we settle it with samples before ordering.
Narrow setbacks, alley access, and close-set foundations are the norm here. We route staging and scaffolding around actual lot lines.
A lot with six feet of side yard won't forgive a staging plan built for the suburbs.
Our own crew lays every course — brick, stone veneer, CMU block, chimney masonry — coordinated with your GC's framing schedule.
On dense urban lots, trades stack fast. One crew on one schedule keeps that from turning into gridlock.
We walk the finished masonry against approved plans, check every joint, and clear the site before the city inspector arrives.
We'd rather catch a flaw ourselves than have an inspector catch it for us.
When a new build sits eight feet from a century-old foundation, sloppy masonry doesn't stay contained to your lot. Bad coursing, mismatched mortar, or skipped flashing shows up on a wall your neighbors see every day.
Typical rework cost when a crew misreads material tone against a Evanston streetscape
Before poor tie and flashing work on a tight-lot build starts showing water damage
AMS passes City of Evanston inspection on the first visit
Ordering brick without walking the block first produces a facade that clashes with the century-old housing stock right next door.
Crews unfamiliar with narrow setbacks and alley access improvise their staging plan on day one — and improvised staging damages neighboring property.
Steel lintels installed without proper bearing sag within a few seasons, cracking stair-step patterns through brand-new brick.
On a dense block where trades are stacked tight, a crew that changes week to week loses the schedule — and loses accountability with it.
Courtyard buildings, century-old frame houses, and new infill all sit on the same street here. We plan material and coursing against what's actually next door.
No rotating subcontractors on a lot where trades are already stacked tight. The masons who estimate your job are the ones who build it.
Narrow setbacks and alley-only access are routine here, not an exception. We plan scaffolding and delivery around the lot you actually have.
Flashing, ties, and drainage are executed to code the first time, so your project isn't the one waiting on a re-inspection.
"Our lot backs to an alley shared with a courtyard building. AMS asked about that access before quoting the job, not after."
Marcus Webb
Evanston, IL · North Shore
Chimney and fireplace masonry, tuckpointing, and brick and stone veneer work completed across Evanston's dense, mixed-era blocks — from Central Evanston to the Lakeshore District.
100+ projects completed across Illinois
If your new mortar doesn't match the tone and texture of the block it's built on — we redo it. No charge, no argument. That's our standard on every Evanston project.
What homeowners, architects, and GCs actually ask us before breaking ground on an Evanston lot.
Evanston is one stop on a route that runs the full North Shore, the western suburbs, and Chicago proper.
