As one of the leading commercial concrete contractors in the nation, The Conco Companies have had the opportunity to be involved in many of the most interesting projects constructed throughout the Western U.S. Many of the projects we have undertaken include special challenges where we have successfully designed innovative, creative solutions that allowed us meet or exceed deadlines and stay on budget.
To highlight some of our accomplishments, we have posted a number of YouTube videos demonstrating Conco’s mastery in providing a range of concrete services. Many of our videos are time-lapsed records of our mat foundation pours and are fun to watch. One recent example, the 5th & Columbia Mat Foundation Time-lapsed video showcases the June 20, 2015 mat pour. The bird’s eye-view takes you through Conco’s extremely busy day where we did the mat pour for The Mark, which is currently under construction in Seattle, Washington. During the pour, we laid down 4,925 cubic yards of concrete and used 1.5 million pounds of reinforcing. In addition around 500 concrete truckloads were needed to complete the job. The 44-story, 660-foot (200 m)-tall skyscraper is scheduled for completion in April 2017 and is being constructed on the same site where the Fifth and Columbia Tower once stood. The project is being developed by Daniels Real Estate and will be comprised of a 184-room luxury hotel along with 528,000 square feet of prime office space. The Mark is slated to become the fifth tallest building in Seattle and is the tallest building to be constructed in the city since 1990. It is expected to achieve LEED Gold. Features include a system that captures rainwater for reuse as well as a 35-foot tall “living wall” with growing plants along the Columbia Street facade. Additionally the tower will be equipped with a rooftop solar energy system. The unique design calls for the building to be the smallest at its base and for each floor to be a different size. The Conco Companies are a leading supplier of concrete services for the Western United States. We have built a reputation on superior concrete formwork, reinforcing, place and finish, shotcrete and other ancillary services that benefit from our vast experience. We have four regional offices to serve Southern and Northern California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada and Colorado.
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If you have been following the construction of the Wilshire Grand Center in downtown L.A., you may be interested in a new time-lapsed video that shows a bird's-eye view of the progress that was released by Wilshire Grand Project/Turner Construction. The video can be found on the Wilshire Grand’s facebook page. While you are there, be sure to take a look at the great picture of Conco’s hardworking wall crew that is straight from the jobsite. The new video is comprised of images from a camera that was installed at the building site in late 2012. It starts by documenting the deconstruction of the old Wilshire Grand and continues right up to the current progress in August, 2015. The tower now stands at more than 50-stories tall and is becoming quite a presence in the area. The $1 billion-plus project has experienced many firsts such as when Conco set a world record for the largest concrete pour in February, 2014, and by employing the use of a special cantilever crane that is more commonly seen in cities such as New York. Furthermore, the building’s design has been put through rigorous, sophisticated earthquake testing, and as such, is being built to withstand strong seismic activity. Once complete the 73-story Grand is slated to become the tallest building in the U.S. west of the Mississippi and will stand 1,100 feet tall from the ground level to the top of the spire. As well as providing extensive concrete services for the new Wilshire Grand, The Conco Companies are busy working on projects throughout the Western United States. Check out our website to take a look at the vast range of projects we have been a part of as well as those we are currently working on. The Conco Companies are a leading supplier of concrete services for the Western United States. We have built a reputation on superior concrete formwork, reinforcing, place and finish, shotcrete and other ancillary services that benefit from our vast experience. We have four regional offices to serve Southern and Northern California, Nevada, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington. Sources:facebook.com/WilshireGrandCenter. la.curbed.com/archives/2015/08/wilshire_grand_construction_time_lapse.php In an article about earthquakes published by Scientific American, they explain that, “Lateral shaking is the force that can cause the most damage to a building during an earthquake.” Since the force usually occurs in a direction parallel to the ground, skyscrapers in earthquake prone areas need to have lateral resistance to prevent quake damage and to protect against other lateral forces such as wind.
The Conco Companies are providing concrete services on the new Wilshire Grand Center in downtown Los Angeles, which when finished, will be the tallest structure built in a “seismic hot zone.” For this reason, the building’s design has been put through some of the most advanced and sophisticated earthquake modeling available. The skyscraper’s earthquake resistance is further complicated by the fact that architect, David Martin, designed the building with large windows on every floor that required the construction of a concrete core. Since the core is 33 feet wide along its narrowest side for a building that will be 1,100 feet tall, the geotechnical firm, AMEC, was hired to ensure the building’s resistant to damage from a quake. Their job was to create simulated earthquakes to test the tower design and to evaluate “the maximum acceleration — the greatest jolt — that the building could experience.” After a series of numerous tests and studying damage from past earthquakes in Southern California, the engineers refined the size and depth of the foundation to resist as much as “13.2 million pounds of force pulling up and 25 million pounds of force pushing down on each of the 20 perimeter columns as the tower swayed during an earthquake.” However the test still simulated some buckling so rather than increase the amount of concrete, AMEC’s solution was to add devices called buckling-restrained braces. The devices are long steel bars encased in a steel box filled with grout that allows the bars to compress or stretch when the building moves. The redesign of the Wilshire Grand will now include 170 of these devices. The Conco Companies are a leading supplier of concrete services for the Western United States. We have built our reputation with superior concrete formwork, reinforcing, place and finish, shotcrete and other ancillary services that benefit from our vast experience. With four regional offices, we serve California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada and Colorado. Sources: graphics.latimes.com/wilshire-grand-earthquakes/ - Sources: Leonard Joseph, Thornton Tomasetti; Tammy Jow, Joseph Varholick, Carey McLeod and Noel Moreno, A.C. Martin; Steve Carroll, Schuff Steel; Ian Aiken, SIE Inc.; Nippon Steel Engineering USA; G.G. Schierle, USC School of Architecture; Dave Eichten, Pankow. scientificamerican.com/article/bring-science-home-earthquake-proof-engineering/ Another one of The Conco Companies’ projects is the Salesforce Tower currently under construction in downtown San Francisco. Cesar Pelli of Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, the lead architect on the project noted that, “The tower will be an elegant and exciting line on the skyline of a great city.” For our part, we are providing extensive concrete services for the Tower, which, after the Wilshire Grand Center in L.A., will be the second tallest building west of the Mississippi when it opens in 2017.
The Tower has already been given the U.S. Green Building Council’s highest rating, the LEED Core and Shell Pre-Certified Platinum, and meets or exceeds the levels of sustainability set by the new, more stringent building codes. Features of the 61-story Tower include an innovative air system that brings outside air to every floor to provide occupants with outdoor-fresh air. In addition special glass and sunshades will allow natural light in but control the amount of solar heat. Pedestrian friendly, the Tower is within walking distance to restaurants and several forms of public transportation. Located just blocks from a BART Station and the freeway, it is adjacent to the new San Francisco Transbay Transit Center that is scheduled to be completed in 2017. The Transit Center will connect 11 transit systems to eight counties throughout the Bay Area as well as connect the planned high speed rail system from San Francisco to Los Angeles. As part of the Transbay Transit Center Project, the Transbay neighborhood will have more than 6 million square feet of office space; over 4,000 units of new housing; and almost 1,000 new hotel rooms in addition to the Salesforce Tower. Another interesting aspect of the project is a proposed 5.4 acre public rooftop park that sits atop the Transit Center. The park will feature amenities such as an amphitheater, water features, a restaurant, gardens and more. 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. |
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