>They must have felt there was some force in that area that required a
tensile treatment. What were they trying to hold together?


Sorry, I got carried away.

In distant historic times, when drawing that detail for brick veneer walls, 
I assumed the designers thought they had to work against the thin veneer 
bulging or bowing, not stretching.   There were always two rods spaced well 
apart, not placed in the centre of the brick, as though to work against 
flex.

The detail was just like what we did all the time with concrete block.   The 
recent grad guys I worked for at the beginning of life here had little 
experience with brick until later when giant brick became fashionable.

On the other hand, I love your rubber band image for Ken's windowed wall.


cp in mbc
(mbc = modern brick crap) 

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