The Facilities Committee did a detailed walk through with two masonry companies last week who are in the final round before the job is awarded.  We learned that the failure of bricks was caused by our old steam heating system.  The old system – before the heating system was replaced by roof top units – used steam pipes and steam traps. As it aged, many of the steam traps failed and remained open causing moisture build up and wreaking havoc on the bricks during the freeze/thaw cycle of our Minnesota winters. 
 
In our situation, the mortar is harder than the bricks.  As we were reviewing every section of the exterior, we noticed the efflorescence (the white you see on the exterior) was significant in certain places.  One of the potential vendors just tapped on the brick next to it and a large piece of the brick fell off.  The result is that we need to replace thousands of bricks, and tuck point major sections of the building.