Update on the Wilshire Grand Center

When it opens in 2017, the Wilshire Grand Center will encompass 2.1 million square feet and stand 1,100 feet tall from the ground to the top of the spire.  The 73-story tower will contain a luxury hotel, cutting-edge restaurants, businesses, and nightlife entertainment.  Furthermore, it is one of the first buildings in LA as well as in the country to be built with a true sky lobby. Visitors to the sky deck will get panoramic views of the city and the breathtaking infinity pool.

Another first for the Grand it that it is the first building of any height in the downtown  since the construction of the L.A. City Hall to not have a flat roof but rather a domed top.  Also it is slated to be one of the most advanced and sustainable buildings in Southern California loaded with energy saving features and unique architectural designs.

Chris Martin, the chief architect and development manager, said of the project, “We're trying to design buildings that work for the tenant of today, not the tenant of yesterday." 

The Wilshire Grand is certainly a next generation type of building as it will offer mixed-use occupancy of hotel, retail, office space and restaurants.     

Constructing the 73-story tower has created its own distinctive architectural needs. One of the latest additions to the site was a special cantilever crane not often seen in Downtown Los Angeles.  On Feb. 3, the crane was placed on top of a raised platform that extends out from the building.  Cantilever style cranes are commonly used in projects that have limited space and help to reduce the ground surface area required.  They are often used in Manhattan and other large cities to help construct tall skyscrapers.     

Source:

 wilshiregrandcenter.com/design

ladowntownnews.com/news/high-rise-crane-coming-to-wilshire-grand-project/article_88f71d98-a8cc-11e4-87a4-4f2e8144bfd8.html

The Conco Companies are a leading supplier of concrete services for the Western U.S. and 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 currently serve California, Washington, Oregon, Nevada and Colorado.

Denver’s Historical Buildings

Downtown Denver is being revitalized with many new buildings recently completed and others that are still in the construction or planning phase.  Now that the newly renovated Union Station is open, we started thinking about other historic sites in the Denver area and how they are faring.  The National Register of Historic Places lists 289 properties and districts for Denver on their registry. 

One of the more distinct landmarks in downtown Denver is the Daniels & Fisher (D&F) Tower.  When it was constructed in 1910 as part of the Daniels & Fisher department store, it was the tallest building between the Mississippi and California at 325 ft.  The tower was designed by architect Frederick Sterner and modeled after The Campanile (St. Mark’s Tower in Venice, Italy.  One of the unique features on the outside of the building is its 20-floor clock tower with faces on all four sides.  After the department store was demolished in 1971, the tower was saved and reopened in 1981 as renovated lofts and businesses.    

Another interesting building is the Sherman Street Event Center that was formerly known as the Mosque of the El Jebel Shrine, the Rocky Mountain Consistory, and the Scottish Rite Temple.  Never a mosque in Islamic terms, the historic building was constructed in 1907 as a meeting hall for the Shriners (El Jabel chapter of the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine).  The building was sold to the Scottish Rite Masons in 1924.  In 1995, it was resold and is now a catering and events facility. 

Our last choice of buildings to discuss is the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception that was started in 1902 and completed in 1911.  It was designed by a Detroit architect, Leon Coquard, in the French Gothic style and influenced by the 13th-century Saint Nicholas Collegiate church in Moselle, France.  The cost to build the large 800-person capacity cathedral was about $500,000.

Source:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Register_of_Historic_Places_listings_in_Denver,_Colorado

We are a leading supplier of concrete services for the Western U.S. and 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 currently serve California, Washington, Oregon, Nevada and Colorado.

Demolition Starts on Candlestick Park

As The Conco Companies played a large role in the construction of the new San Francisco 49ers Levi Stadium in Santa Clara, we have remained interested in what will happen to the old stadium.  After several years of discussion, the demolition on Candlestick Park began on February 4, 2015.  Due to a concern with local dust pollution, the park is being torn down rather than imploded and the process is expected to take several months.   

The last scheduled event at Candlestick was a concert on August 14, 2014 by Paul McCartney, and is where the Beatles gave their final last concert 48 years earlier almost to the day.  The Park was originally built for San Francisco’s baseball team the Giants and was the home field to the 49ers from 1971 to 2013. 

The demolition process for Candlestick is being done with precision piece by piece.  Larry Thomas of Silverado Contractors, the company hired to do the demolition said, “It’s a little trickier than wrecking a building.”  He explained that wreckers do not have a lot of experience wrecking stadiums as compared to buildings.  To keep the dust and debris from polluting the surround neighborhood, they are using mechanical wreckers rather than wrecking balls or dynamite.  The well-used orange plastic stadium seats (some were sold to fans for $649 a pair) will be ground up and recycled.   

Candlestick Park was built in 1960 for a cost of $32 million and the new Levi 49ers Stadium that opened in fall 2014 cost $1.2 billion.  Even though the total seating capacity for the new stadium (68,500 Levi – Candlestick Park 69,900) is less, Levi Park has 9,000 premium club seats and 165 luxury suites.   According to the San Francisco 49ers website, a new shopping, housing and entertainment development is scheduled to be constructed in place of the old stadium.

Source:

sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Candlestick-Park-disappearing-piece-by-piece-6062980.php

Conco is a leading supplier of concrete services for the Western United States. 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, Washington, Oregon, Nevada and Colorado.

1959 Marks the Beginning of Conco

Matt Gonsalves

Over more than half a century ago, Conco was founded by Matt Gonsalves, Gerald Santucci, Ray Santucci, Will Gonsalves, and Mel Gonsalves in 1959.  The company began by offering commercial concrete services in California’s Bay Area and it remains the site of our headquarters today.  However during the years, we continued to expand our geographical footprint and enlarge our business so we are now known as The Conco Companies.  We currently serve the following cities and their surrounding areas: San Francisco, San Jose, Sacramento, Seattle, Portland, Reno, Denver and Colorado Springs.

To get an idea of how long Conco has been in business, it helps to take a look at the world in 1959.   At that time, the U.S. President was President Dwight D. Eisenhower and China’s Chairman of the People's Republic of China was Liu Shaoqi.  This also marked the year that Fidel Castro came to power and Cuba became the first communist state in the west.  

The first Grammy Awards Ceremony was held and Frank Sinatra won the Best Album award for “Come Dance with Me”.  At home, people were watching TV shows such as "Rawhide", "Bonanza" and "The Twilight Zone".  The top movies at the box office included "Some Like it Hot", "Ben Hur" and "North by Northwest".  It was a year of contrasts as Barbie makes a fashionable entrance into the world of dolls and IBM ships the first transistor-based IBM 1401 mainframe.

Alaska was admitted to the union to become the 49th state and Hawaii became the 50th.  The yearly inflation rate in the U.S. was 1.01%.  Also Luna 2, a USSR spacecraft, became the first man-made object on the Moon after it crashed into it and the US launched its first weather station into space.

Today, Conco’s very up-to-the-date, 2015 concrete services include professional concrete building design, formwork, reinforcement, shotcrete, pumping, and place and finish. Conco Reinforcing is one of the largest independent reinforcing steel and post tension contractors in the West, and we also own and operate one of the largest concrete pumping companies in the U.S.  Please contact us to learn more about how we can assist with your next project. 

thepeoplehistory.com/1959.html

The Conco Companies are a leading supplier of commercial concrete services for the Western United States.  Our extensive services include commercial, educational, parking and other construction development as well as public works projects and highways.  We have regional offices in California, Oregon, Washington and Colorado.