Everything old is new again

From CBS News:

They may not make 'em like they used to -- but that doesn't mean no one's trying.

Robin Standefer and Stephen Alesch are founders of the design firm Roman and Williams. In an age of generic glass buildings, their designs evoke a sense of personality . . . and permanence.

"We feel like we could build a building right now with current labor and materials that could last four or five hundred years," said Alesch.

"It's a breakthrough to do a brick building -- to do a really good brick building, with wood windows, right now, is a breakthrough," added Standefer.

Take for example Elizabeth Street in Manhattan: Other buildings on the block are well over a hundred years old, except for the seven-story building on the corner of Elizabeth and Prince. It's nearly new, but built the old-fashioned way, with old-fashioned bricks.

"All of our bricks were dead stock," said Standefer, which means, "they hadn't been used since 1950. No exaggeration."

And when the place was finished, people thought it had always been there.

"When we took the scaffolding down, they just thought we had cleaned the building," Alesch said.

"But you built it from nothing?" Smith asked.

"Totally. Ground up," said Standefer.