The Conco Companies were recently recognized for our concrete services on the new Wilshire Grand Project with the “2017 Charles J. Pankow, Jr. Award” from the American Concrete Institute’s Southern California Chapter. The Charles J. Pankow Jr. Award was established in 1984 by the ACI SoCal Chapter in honor of Charles J. Pankow, Jr. and is designed to recognize outstanding and innovative use of concrete in construction. Mr. Pankow was an active member of the Southern California Chapter since its inception and had served as the International President of the ACI from 1980-1981.
The prestigious award is only given out annually, if, in the judgment of the Awards Committees, a qualified project and contractor are nominated. Rules for how the award is bestowed include: “One award may be presented annually to recognize an outstanding, collaborative emerging innovation in design, materials, or construction-related research and development. Innovations must be new to the industry. Not more than one award may be given in any one year.” During the course of constructing the Wilshire Grand, Conco set a world record for the largest continuous mat pour that required appoximately 2,000 truckloads of concrete and took 20 hours of continuous pouring. In total, crews laid down more than 21,200 cubic yards of concrete over 7.1 million pounds of reinforcing steel. We also purchased and used a new state-of-the art electric pump to help us pump concrete 650 feet horizontally and then 1,125 feet vertically in order to reach the highest levels of the skyscraper. Furthermore, as the pump was electric, it was both quieter and cleaner than a diesel pump. Conco wishes to extend our thanks for all of the support and trust placed in us by our trade partners and the construction industry. Along with Conco serving as the concrete contractor, the other recipients of the award include the Wilshire Grand’s owner, Hanjin International Corp.; general contractor, Turner Construction Company; structural engineer, Brandow & Johnston and Thornton Tomasetti, and concrete supplier, CalPorland Ready Mix. 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. Source: asce.org/templates/award-detail.aspx?id=401
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One recent project The Conco Companies provided a range of concrete services for is the Salesforce Tower in San Francisco. Now the tallest and most expensive building in the city as well as the tallest occupied floor west of Chicago, the Salesforce is close to completion. Scheduled to open in early 2018, the project developer’s, Boston Properties reports that nearly 700 construction workers are on site every day, working around the clock to finish the tower.
Another interesting detail about the 61-story skyscraper is it was originally named the Transbay Tower but Salesforce bought both the naming rights and the lease of 30 floors in the tower in a $560 million over 15 and a half year deal. Other companies that will share space in the 1.4 million-square-foot building include Bain & Company, Accenture, and CBRE, a real-estate group. WeWork, the newest tenant, just completed a deal to lease three floors of the tower, which will become their second headquarters. Their first is in New York City. The project’s General Contractor, Clark Construction want to let the building’s neighbors know that the tower is firmly anchored to bedrock by 42 load-bearing piles that go down more than 300 feet below grade. In fact it is the first commercial office building in California to be designed with such an advanced level of seismic safety. Along with the 13 ft. high ceilings and continuous 10 ft. tall windows on each floor, metal automated sunshades will adjust during the day to maximize sunlight as well as protect the offices from overheating. Additionally the tower will offer direct access to the Transbay Transit Center, which will be just next door once it opens. In terms of the number of people working in the tower, Salesforce alone expects to have 10,000 of their employees in the tower. This is approximately a third of the company’s workforce. The top two floors (60 and 61) are part of Salesforce’s lease and they say they will let out the top floor for free to nonprofit groups and nongovernmental organizations. 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. Source:businessinsider.com/photos-of-salesforce-tower-san-francisco-2017-4/#salesforce-and-its-billionaire-ceo-marc-benioff-are-riding-high-these-days-1 One of The Conco Companies most impressive projects over the last few years was providing concrete services on the Wilshire Grand Center in downtown L.A. Now after four years of construction, the 73-story tower officially opened on June 23, 2017. Costing $1.35 billion, the 1,100 ft. tall skyscraper is the tallest building west of the Mississippi. The opening ceremony for the skyscraper included local dignitaries and politicians as well as the owners of the building, Korean Air.
In addition to its towering height, the Wilshire’s slanted peaked roofline, referred to as the “sail,” stands out among the flat roof tops of the surrounding buildings. The design was instrumental in changing L.A.’s code that had required skyscrapers to have a flat roof to accommodate a helicopter in case of an emergency. In fact it is the first high-rise without a flat roof since the L.A. City Hall was built in 1928. According to the project’s lead architect, Chris Martin of AC Martin Partners, the “sail” design is based on a massive granite formation in Yosemite Valley called the Half Dome. The Wilshire is pretty spectacular at night also as the roof is lit up with rainbow-colored LED lights that can be seen for miles and will be used to project images onto the building’s face for special events. The tower also is home to the city’s highest open-air bar, and has a top floor deck that offers 360-degree views of the city. Another impressive feature is the skylight in the tower’s first-floor entrance. Comprised of “a steel cage wrapped in 475 glass panels,” Chris Martin says it was inspired by the Merced River that runs through Yosemite. It is reported that 950 people worked on the project every day. For the world’s largest continuous mat pour, Conco poured 21,200 cubic yards of concrete. By the end of the pour, we had completed a foundation that is nearly 20 ft. thick. 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. Source: la.curbed.com/2017/6/23/15860186/wilshire-grand-tower-los-angeles-opening The final beam was hoisted into place on April 6, 2017 topping off the new Salesforce Tower in downtown San Francisco, which is the tallest building west of Chicago. While the new Wilshire Grand in Los Angeles has a spire that actually makes it higher in height, the San Francisco tower will hold the honor of having the highest occupied floor. The 61-story skyscraper, located at Mission and 1st Street, and has been under construction for four years.
The Conco Companies provided concrete services on the 1,070 ft. skyscraper. We announced last November that we successfully completed the final core wall pour and that it was now officially the tallest building in San Francisco. One year before that, we completed the 12,000 cubic-yard mat pour for the tower and set a record for the largest pour in San Francisco’s history. Before construction of the Salesforce Tower, the 853 ft. tall Transamerica Pyramid had held the record as the tallest building in the city for 43 years. Another skyscraper, the Millennium, just a block away from the Salesforce Tower is garnering attention for the fact that it has sunk 16 inches from when it first opened its doors in 2009. To further complicate matters, the condominium building is sinking unevenly. While the Millennium’s foundations rest on 950 friction piles, they do not go down to the bedrock as does the Salesforce Tower’s foundation, which is anchored to bedrock. The developer of the Salesforce Tower, Boston Properties reports the opening will be rolled out in phases beginning in July and continue through to 2018. Spokesperson, Michael Cantalupa, said, "The steels been finished, concrete finished, the skin of the building is coming up. In terms of later phases of construction, the building needs to be fit out for its tenants. So, each tenant that comes in, its space is going to be designed and constructed for its particular uses." The Conco Companies are one of the leading concrete contractors in the Western U.S. and offer a wide range of quality services and products. While we tackle projects both big and small, our experience includes providing the complete concrete package for the Levi’s Stadium along with other notable projects. We serve California, Washington State, Oregon, Colorado and Nevada. Source:abc7news.com/realestate/topping-off-ceremony-for-salesforce-tower-in-sf----watch-live/1841834/http%3A%2F%2Fabc7news.com%2F1841834%2F 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 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. From the deconstruction of the old hotel on the site that began in Oct 2012, to the bottoming-out ceremony that took place a little over a year later, the 73-story Wilshire Grand is now receiving the final finishing touches. Throughout much of the construction, The Conco Companies have been honored to be a part of the exciting project, and now look forward to the scheduled opening in March.
To get a good idea of how the skyscraper has taken shape of the last several months, take a look at the incredible pictures and videos of the progress on the Wilshire Grand’s facebook page. One amazing example is a series of pictures covering the placement of the spire that topped the building’s height out at 1,100 feet. The short video of the spire’s eye view of the September 6, 2016 installation that made the Wilshire Grand the tallest building in the West United States is fascinating. Also be sure to check out the picture of the Grand’s beautiful front lobby that was added to facebook in October 2016. The selection of videos includes a short introduction to the building and mentions many of its highlights and features including the fact that it will exemplify an outdoor and indoor connection for an authentic Los Angles’ experience. It also talks about the plaza that will be a portal to the city-wide transit system, the sports and entertainment corridor, and the financial district as well as the historic 7th Street. With high-speed elevators to take passengers up to the 70th floor sky lobby complete with a signature restaurant, rooftop pool and observation deck in just 45 seconds, the Wilshire Grand is sure to be one of L.A.’s top tourist destinations. Please visit Conco’s website to see more about the construction of the skyscraper as well as other projects in our extensive portfolio. Our broad experience includes commercial, industrial, educational, healthcare, parking structures and other construction development. 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. Over the last several years The Conco Companies have had the opportunity to be involved in the construction of the two tallest skyscrapers west of the Mississippi, the Wilshire Grand in Los Angeles and the Salesforce Tower in San Francisco. This experience got us to wondering who was responsible for measuring and recording the world’s newly constructed skyscrapers as they continue to push the envelope in terms of their towering height.
The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) is the world’s leading resource for professionals focused on the inception, design, construction, and operation of tall buildings and future cities. The CTBUH is also responsible for developing the international standards used to measure tall buildings’ heights and is the recognized official organization for bestowing the title of the ‘The World’s Tallest Building.’ The height of tall buildings is measured by three criteria that includes: the height to the architectural top; the highest occupied floor; and the height to the tip. The height to the architectural top is defined as the height measured from the level of the “lowest, significant, open-air, pedestrian entrance to the architectural top of the building, including spires, but not including antennae, signage, flag poles or other functional-technical equipment.” The highest occupied floor is officially defined by the CTBUH as the measurement from the lowest significant pedestrian entrance to the highest occupied floor in the building. The third criteria again starts at the “lowest level” as defined earlier to the highest point of the building “irrespective of material or function of the highest element (i.e., including antennae, flagpoles, signage, and other functional-technical equipment).” In addition to tall skyscrapers the CTBUH also recognizes a fairly new category of “supertall” and “megatall” buildings. They define a supertall building as being over 300 meters or 984 feet high. Buildings over 600 meters or 1,968 feet tall are considered to be megatall. Their statistics show that as of June 2015, there were 91 supertall and 2 megatall buildings that were fully completed and occupied across the globe. In addition there are several more extremely high skyscrapers currently under construction. 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. Source:ctbuh.org/TallBuildings/HeightStatistics/Criteria/tabid/446/language/en-US/Default.aspx |
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