The Greenest Buildings in America

Most experts agree that a LEED Platinum certification or the equivalent is the standard for sustainable designs that clearly identify the best energy and water efficient buildings.  Other systems for rating green building are Green Star in Australia, DGNB in Germany, BREEAM in the UK, and CASBEE in Japan.  Generally accepted as the leading international standard, LEED ratings are being used to rate projects throughout the world.

By recognizing what constitutes the best green standards and how well a design translates into actual performance, we can gather data to be used for future projects.  Engineers, architects, and builders have taken the challenge and are moving forward to create greener office buildings, homes, and industrial parks.

It is recommended that the decision to build green is done as early as possible in the design stage as even the site choice can be a factor.  It will help to reduce costly missteps down the road.  A few examples of some of the greenest buildings in North America are:

·     Manitoba Hydro Place in Winnipeg, Canada – extensively used recycled building materials and has geothermal and thermal accumulators for heating/cooling.

·      Bank of America Tower, New York City – currently holds the distinction of being the only skyscraper with a Platinum LEED rating in the U.S.

·      Genzyme Center in Cambridge, Mass. – has a beautiful 12-story central atrium that allows for 75% of the employees to work in natural light.

·     Twelve West in Portland, Ore. – is equipped with four 45’ high wind turbines mounted on the roof and provides 9,000 kilowatt hours of energy per year.

·   Charles David Keeling Apartments, La Jolla, CA – receives extra points for utilizing the building’s site to its maximum potential and regulating temperatures with thermal mass.

Discover the experience of working with one of the top professional commercial concrete contractors in the Colorado Springs area.  Conco has been in business since 1959 delivering first-rate concrete services and has all the experience and expertise to handle even the most challenging projects. 

Some of the Largest Concrete Pours

Conco’s regional office in Washington completed a 2,880 cubic yard mat pour using 275 tons of rebar for The Martin, a 24-story luxury apartment tower for general contractor Exxel Pacific.  The Martin is located in Seattle’s downtown area known as Belltown, adjacent to the Monorail, which made access and time constraints a concern.  

A total of three pumps were used - a 36 meter, 47 meter & 58 meter to complete the mat pour pumping 450 cubic yards per hour at peak times. Cadman, Inc. delivered the ready-mix with trucks arriving approximately every 80 seconds to fill the mat which measures 7′-6″ at the deepest point.

While we are proud of our accomplishment at The Martin, we are in awe of some of the world records set for concrete pours.  According to the International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers (BAC), the largest mat pour in the U.S. was for the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas.  It was a 22,000 cubic yard pour. 

BAC states the second largest pour in the U.S. was for the luxurious Trump Royale condominium, a 22-story, 386-unit building in Southern Florida that was done in 2007.  At the end of a very busy 24 hours, utilizing 190 trucks in constant rotation, and a 1500 man crew, 13,500 cubic yards of concrete were poured and 1,600 tons of rebar used. 

The world record for the largest concrete pour on a single project took a period of 17 years to complete.  The Three Gorges Dam in Hubei Province, China used an estimated 21 million cubic yards of concrete. 

There even stands a record for the largest continuous underwater concrete pour that was done in New Orleans in 2010.  It was for 10,251 cubic yards of concrete pumped over a period of 58 hours.   

As one of the leading commercial concrete contractors in the San Jose area, Conco has been involved with large-scale projects in the area including the Mineta Airport.  Our concrete services include commercial, educational, parking and other construction development as well as public works projects and highways.

How is Concrete Recycled?

Concrete is used in many countless applications and is the most widely used man-made material in the world.  Even after the many decades it serves as a building or as a part of a highway, the concrete is easily recycled. 

In the past, concrete was not reused and was just taken to landfills for disposal which was wasteful and took up space.  Now concrete is routinely recycled and the aggregate that is produced is used to create new concrete or for a multitude of other purposes. 

Once a building is demolished, crews prepare the concrete by removing as many contaminates as possible such as roofing, trash, wood, and other materials.  The care that is taken at the site helps to ensure how good the product will be down the road and recycling facilities will not accept concrete that has not been reasonably cleaned.    

The reinforced steel (rebar) in the concrete is removed at the recycling site.  Huge magnets are used to attract and identify the steel for removal.  After removal, that too is targeted for recycling and sent to facilities that specialize in steel materials. 

At the recycling plant, the concrete goes through several steps that involve crushing, pre-sizing, sorting, screening and further elimination of contaminants.  It is cleaned by a water method to get rid of dirt and other remaining materials.  Especially important is getting rid of things like asphalt, sealant, chlorides and gypsum.  

There is also a market for used concrete that has not processed and screened as carefully. This aggregate can be used for fill, drainage, or as sub-base gravel before asphalt or new concrete is poured.

Conco is a leading supplier of concrete services for the Western United States. We have built our reputation in the Los Angeles area with superior concrete formwork, reinforcing, place and finish, shotcrete and other ancillary services that benefit from our vast experience. 

World’s Largest Parking Lots

According to the Guinness World Records, the largest parking lot serves the world’s largest shopping and entertainment center.  It is located at the West Edmonton Mall in Alberta, Canada.  The parking lot was built to hold 20,000 cars, and believe it or not, there is even a nearby overflow lot that can handle 10,000 vehicles.

Right now the trend in parking is to build a structure or garage as it allows more efficient parking and uses a lot less space than a big, sprawled out parking lot.  There is another advantage in that parking garages are built out of concrete and will last decades while big open parking lots are generally made from asphalt.  Asphalt has a life-span of about 20 years and will need to be constantly maintained.  By comparison, a concrete garage has a span of around 50 years with nowhere near the maintenance involved.   

A newly opened, smart-parking garage in Dubai has been awarded the distinction of being the “largest automated parking facility in the world” by the Guinness World Records.  The nine-story facility is located at the Emirates Financial Tower and cost a whopping $22 million.   It has the capacity for 1191 vehicles and is fully computerized.  A driver just pulls their vehicle into the transit bay and gets out, the rest is automated.  The computer identifies the best spot for the car and has it ready for the owner a few minutes before their departure.  You can even have your car washed while it is being “parked”. 

Conco’s team of professional concrete contractors in the Portland area brings the highest level of integrity and principles to each project from pre-construction to finish.  With the rapidly growing construction market, Conco is taking an active role in the Portland area with our expansion of high-quality commercial concrete services.