The 1 Bligh Street office tower in downtown Sydney received a "6 Star/World Leadership"-certification, which is the highest score from the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA). The tower was designed by Ingenhoven Architects + Architectus, who won an international contest commissioned by the property owner, Dexus Property Group, in 2006.
Right from the earliest design elements, the 30-story building was geared toward energy efficiencies and nature inspired features starting with its elliptical shape to the orientation that takes advantage of the serene Sydney Harbor views. The tower is the first high-rise in the country to have a double skin façade and natural ventilation. As tall as the building, the atrium is the central focal point and allows natural daylight and ventilation into the office space as well as the balconies that look out to the atrium. The glass elevators in the atrium offer a great “spatial experience” with each ride. In addition 1 Bligh Street has an outdoor terrace on the 15th floor and a large rooftop terrace that offer views of the harbor. Other energy efficient features include a combined cooling, heating, and electric power generation system as well as a vacuum tube solar collector that produces electricity. Furthermore, the building has a dedicated water filtration plant with the capacity to clean more waste water than the building creates. This is especially important in Australia as water is a precious commodity. Construction materials include using more than 20% recycled aggregate and replacing almost 41 percent of the cement with industrial waste by-products. Data on the construction also reports that “ninety percent of the structural steel has a recycled content of at least 50 percent, and, all timber used was either recycled or from an FSC-certified source.” While not the tallest building in the city, 1 Bligh Street strives to set new standards for “site consciousness and sustainability.” The building’s ground level is only 40 percent enclosed with the rest open to the public and includes an open-air café, meeting areas, and a children’s play area. The Conco Companies are a leading supplier of concrete services for the Western U.S. We got our start in the Bay Area in 1959 by offering clients the best value on a wide range of concrete services and products. Since that time, we have taken a leading role as one of the top concrete contractors in the region. We have four regional offices serving California, Nevada, Washington, Oregon and Colorado. Sources: archdaily.com/169173/1-bligh-office-tower-ingenhoven-architects skyscrapercenter.com/building/1-bligh-street/10711
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Extremely tall buildings over 600 meters (around 2,000 feet) have been designated as “megatall” by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH). One example of a megatall skyscraper currently under construction is “The Tower,” which will surpass the 2,716 feet high Burj Khalifa, currently the world’s tallest building, by a “notch.” The Jeddah Tower is another mind-bogglingly megatall skyscraper that will reach the architectural height of 3,280 feet (1,000 meters, or one kilometer) tall, once it is completed in 2020. By 2020, The CTBUH predicts there will be at least eight such buildings internationally.
However a recent article from CNN Style asserts that the most likely trend for new skyscrapers in the future will not be “freakishly tall designs.” Rather they speculate that modern skyscrapers will be highly efficient, versatile building that “will be essential to cope with growing urban populations and keep cities running.” New energy efficient skyscrapers with carbon-neutral footprints are being called the “fifth generation” of skyscrapers by architects. These modern buildings feature things like “renewable energy generation, solar shading and double-skin facades with natural ventilation.” They also may have landscaped atriums, underground heat storage and water catchment systems as well as recycling, and linear induction elevators. Modern skyscrapers are being constructed with vertical urban farms and green areas along with facades and roofs used to generate electricity. One prime example of a skyscraper of the future is the Council House 2 (CH2) in Melbourne, Australia. As part of the city’s commitment to achieve zero emissions for the municipality by 2020, the CH2 office building was designed “to be a holistic system with its occupants as participants. The design follows a model that promotes a more interactive role between the city and nature, in which all parties depend on each other.” The building’s facades are nature inspired and help to moderate climate with tapered ventilation ducts that integrate day lighting. An undulating concrete floor plays a key role in the building’s heating and cooling system. The CH2 was the first commercial building to meet and exceed the Green Building Council of Australia’s six star rating. Conco is one of the leading concrete contractors in the Western U.S. and offers a wide range of quality services and products. While we tackle projects both big and small, our experience includes providing the entire cast-in-place concrete for the Wilshire Grand, the tallest building west of the Mississippi, along with other notable projects. We serve California, Washington State, Oregon, Colorado and Nevada. Sources: cnn.com/2016/12/08/architecture/rise-of-glass-skyscrapers/index.html archdaily.com/395131/ch2-melbourne-city-council-house-2-designinc Over the last couple of years, The Conco Companies have expanded our concrete services in the greater Portland area. We now offer a full range of services including premium concrete pumping, rebar fabrication and installation, shotcrete, and formwork. In addition we provide Conco customers a great value when they take advantage of our design/build, general contracting and turnkey solutions.
The construction market in the Portland area has grown exponentially over the last several years and Conco has stepped up to help fill the demand for quality concrete services. In business since 1959, we are one of the largest commercial concrete contractors in the U.S. and operate a large Concrete Division as well as Conco Reinforcing. Our concrete pumping and belting company has the capability and resources to handle extremely large projects as well as those with challenging specifications and tight timelines. We are proud of our vast portfolio that includes some of the most notable projects constructed over the last several years such as the Salesforce Tower in San Francisco and the Wilshire Grand in L.A. Conco also operates two large rebar fabrication plants and is the largest independent reinforcing steel contractor on the West Coast. Our newest facility, in Rochester, WA, is conveniently located to efficiently serve the Portland area and gives us the resources to be a single source for all of your high-performance fabricated rebar needs. We also provide professional installation and delivery. Furthermore, we bring our expert cost-efficient shotcrete services to the area. Shotcrete allows your project to save both time and money and is used in applications such as retaining walls, slope pavement, shear walls, architectural walls, and soil nailing. Conco also provides our Portland customers high-quality post tensioning cable that meets or exceeds the most stringent engineering specification and requirements. At The Conco Companies, we are one of the leading concrete contractors in the Western U.S. and offer a wide range of quality services and products. Our experience includes providing services for commercial, educational, parking and other construction development as well as public works projects. We serve California, Washington State, Oregon, Colorado and Nevada. Along with our professional concrete pump rental services, The Conco Companies also offers our West Coast customers the opportunity to rent a Telebelt (a telescopic belt conveyor) or portable belt. These useful, problem-solving belts will allow you to cost-effectively move a variety of materials on and off your jobsite without going through the labor-intensive, time consuming process of re-handling the material.
Both our truck mounted Telebelts and portable belts are designed for versatility and convenience and are ideal for projects that require challenging placement methods. Some timesaving examples include congested job sites and muddy, uneven ground as well as to move materials around corners or across terrain inaccessible to trucks. Our belts are also invaluable at jobsites with low clearance, tight access points, or to deposit material below or above grade. They are used in a variety of applications including mat pours, warehouse slabs, extremely large foundations and footings as well as backfill and bridge decks. Conco has owned and operated one of the largest pumping and belting companies in the U.S. since 1975. To successfully run this large of an operation, we have continued to make capital investments, and have one of the most modern state-of-the-art fleets of concrete pumps and Telebelts on the West Coast. One of our latest purchases is a Telebelt® TB 105 Telescopic Belt Conveyor that is capable of conveying a range of materials from sand right up to 4” rock. The belt’s operating capacity is 360 cubic yards per hour. In addition it can transport concrete, rock, backfill, gravel and other materials efficiently without having to use a crane and skid-steer. Please visit our website to learn more about renting a Telebelt for your next project. Conco’s mission is to be the best supplier of concrete services in the Western United States and to bring experience, expertise and quality to each project. We continue to upgrade and expand facilities to better serve the growing market for public works projects, commercial, educational, parking structures, and other construction development. The Conco Companies have been providing a variety of concrete services for the Salesforce Tower currently under construction in downtown San Francisco. Once completed in 2018, the $1.1 billion office building will be the center-piece of a new South of Market neighborhood that includes the Transbay Terminal. The scope of the project involved Conco completing two floors per week for the 61-story skyscraper, which was done in a 3-day work cycle for each floor in order to meet the accelerated pace.
To see how we accomplished this task, we encourage you to visit our facebook page to view our time-lapse video that depicts the last full core wall lift on the 1.4 million square-foot tower. Conco used a unique self-climbing form system that allowed us to do a pour cycle, also known as a “lift,” once every three days. As you will see from our video, the self-climbing form, which is secured to the existing wall below, made the concrete pours on upper floors very efficient. To allow access to the building’s 14-foot 9-inch floor-to-floor heights, the form was raised in increments of 15 feet, and involved both the exterior and interior sections of the system moving independently. To complete a “jump”, the exterior sections require about 20 minutes to complete, and the more complex interior system takes about 45 minutes to complete a jump. Once it is in place, the crews aligned and secured the panels to allow the walls to be enclosed and ready for the pour. This innovative equipment allowed us to begin the next cycle just 6-8 hours after the pour was finished. The job also required using the most powerful concrete stationary pumps in the industry to pump the concrete to the height of the upper floors. We recognize that this feat required absolute organization, management and execution from the top down including our hard-working, dedicated pump operators and rebar, formwork, and placement crews. In addition we are thankful for the support, partnership and collaborative efforts of the project’s general contractor, Clark/Hathaway Dinwiddie, a Joint Venture. Conco also acknowledges that we could not have done the job without the cooperation of all of our other trade partners as well as the project owner, Boston Properties, and our concrete supplier CEMEX. The Conco Companies are a leading supplier of concrete services throughout the Western U.S. We got our start in the Bay Area in 1959 by offering clients the best value on a wide range of concrete services and products and are now one of the foremost concrete contractors in the region. Our concrete services include commercial, educational, industrial and public works projects as well as parking structures. The American Concrete Institute along with the Women in Concrete Alliance will host a Workforce Innovation Summit at the Concrete Convention and Exposition on March 29th in Detroit, MI. According to the ACI, the symposium will address the critical question, “Do we have the right labor force for the jobs that will exist in 10 years?”
In the keynote session, the discussion will center on an “effective diversity strategy – what is working and what is hurting progress.” Attendees will get a better understanding of the type of actions that can help drive progress within organizations. There will also be roundtable forums led by Pam Jeffords, a partner at Mercer and a global expert on diversity and inclusion in the workplace. Along with valuable commentary and insight from industry leaders, the morning session will deal with several important issues facing the concrete industry. Topics open to discussion include: Research update on the status of the industry; Talent acquisition and workforce retention; Opportunities for women; The future labor force; and Generational differences. Participants in the Workforce Innovation Summit will also have the opportunity to hear an update from Sefla Naomi Fuhrman regarding her recent doctoral research that “focused on women in nontraditional occupations, specifically the concrete-construction industry.” She will discuss the reasons why women’s participation in the industry is still so low and share some strategies that can help to address the shortage. In addition Sefla will provide some examples of support for women. The ACI and WICA explain that the summit is designed for all levels of the concrete industry and strongly encourage both men and women to attend. This is a free event but registration is required. Kimberly Kayler, WICA co-founder and an ACI Board of Director’s member says, “Building on the success of similar gatherings in South America, the Women in Concrete Alliance Steering Committee is excited to be able to host an event for the concrete industry that shares insight on today’s changing workforce.” She adds that the leading-edge speakers help to educate as well as provide practical guidance on how to thrive in today’s global workplace environment. The Conco Companies are a leading supplier of concrete services throughout the Western U.S. We got our start in the Bay Area in 1959 by offering clients the best value on a wide range of concrete services and products and are now one of the foremost concrete contractors in the region. Our concrete services include commercial, educational, industrial and public works projects as well as parking structures. |
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