Conco Receives the Prestigious “2017 Charles J. Pankow Jr. Award”

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. 

Facts Regarding the Tallest Skyscraper in San Francisco

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.    

LEED-ND is Used to Recognize “Smart Communities”

Along with the trend to construct energy efficient high-rises and skyscrapers, there is a move to develop energy efficient neighborhood communities.  In 2010 the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) joined forces with the Congress for the New Urbanism and the U.S. Green Building Council to launch LEED for Neighborhood Development, or LEED-ND to formally rate a community’s environmental footprint.   

How Tall and Super Tall Skyscrapers are Measured

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 

A New Skyscraper in Tukwila May be Just the Start!

The city of Tukwila hopes a new skyscraper currently under construction will be the catalyst to new growth in South King County, so reports the local King 5 News.  The skyscraper is another high-rise The Conco Companies are providing concrete services for, and another “tallest” building project between Seattle and Tacoma.   The 19-story tower is also the first Class A high-rise to be built in South King County.   

Once complete, the mixed-use Washington Place tower will offer a 185-room hotel, 370 residential units and a four-story parking garage to accommodate 300 vehicles.  The expected cost of the project is $120 million.  The developer, Omar Lee explains how he put together the financing for the new skyscraper.  He explains that, "Instead of a conventional bank loan, we decided to finance 50% by EB-5, the rest on our own funding, and small loans, so that's something unique about this project.”  

The city of Tukwila is currently building a new bike and pedestrian bridge over the nearby Green River that will connect the new high-rise to the commuter rail station to make it a short 10-walk.  City planners also have a long-term goal of connecting the nearby mall to the commuter rail and encouraging other redevelopment near the new tower.  They hope that the Washington Place project is the start of something big for the city. 

Along with the business-class hotel and apartment units, the tower will include a rooftop garden and a 90-seat restaurant.  The hotel will occupy the first 11th floors of the building and the residential apartments will occupy floors 12-18.  Amenities for the residents and hotel guests include a lounge, club, and exercise room on the top floor, and a pool at ground-level. The new pedestrian/bike bridge is expected to open in 2017 and the Washington Place high-rise by late 2017 or early 2018.   

Conco is 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 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.

Source:king5.com/news/local/tukwila-hopes-new-skyscraper-will-be-catalyst-for growth/375558472

Pencil-slim Skyscrapers - A New Trend in Congested Urban Locations

During 2015, the world was treated to an array of new construction that continues to push the envelope in terms of both size and architectural design. One of those buildings is 432 Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan that overlooks Central Park.  The new tower represents a “new generation of supertall, superslim skyscrapers,” as the pencil-thin design efficiently maximizes the confined Manhattan site.   

Featuring 104 condominium apartments, the building topped out at 1,396 ft. (426 m), to make it the third tallest building in the United States, and the tallest residential building in the world.  In New York City, it is right behind the One World Trade Center, which is the tallest building in both New York City and the country.  The Empire State Building is now the third tallest in the city.

The tower’s owner is 56th and Park (NY) and the developer was the CIM Group / Macklowe Properties.  The architects were Rafael Viñoly Architects and SLCE Architects, LLP.  The construction of the tower includes a 30-ft. square reinforced concrete core with 30-in. thick walls that house the elevator shafts and building mechanical services.  Wikipedia reports that, “the facade, with the formed surface left as the final finish without any added facia, was poured in place from concrete using 14,000 psi white Portland cement, and cast around preassembled full-floor cages of #20 rebars with articulated steel formwork.”

The 85-story building has a floor-to-floor height of 15 ft. 6 in.  While most of the floors consist of 10-in. thick slabs, the upper stories have slabs of up to 18-in. thick to provide more mass and help to reduce swaying.  In addition to improve stability of a building with a 1:15 slenderness ratio, “A regular grid of exposed concrete that creates an open basket from which seven “independent buildings” are separated by spaces where the building’s core is exposed to the outdoor elements.”  

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:skyscrapercenter.com/building/432-park-avenue/13227 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/432_Park_Avenue

The Evolution of Skyscrapers in the Early Twentieth Century

Sales Force Tower

Working on the Salesforce Tower in San Francisco and the Wilshire Grand Center in Los Angeles, we have a newfound respect for the advancements made over the last century in the construction of skyscrapers.   Developments in engineering techniques made it easier to construct tall buildings as well as to live in them, and New York City was at the center of some of the most progressive tower designs. 

During the first decades of the twentieth century, America experienced an upsurge in skyscraper construction as the demand for more modern office space grew.  This period saw the construction of such iconic buildings as the Flatiron in 1902.  Located on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, the steel-framed, 22-story building is considered to be a revolutionary skyscraper.  The wedge-shaped building is situated on the triangular block of Fifth Avenue, Broadway and East 22^nd Street, and got its name from the resemblance to a “cast-iron clothes iron.”  In 1989, it was designated a National Historic Landmark.  

Other outstanding buildings from that era include the Singer Tower at Liberty Street and Broadway in Lower Manhattan's Financial District.  The 47-story headquarters of the Singer Manufacturing Company was completed in 1908 and stood 612-feet tall.  The building was demolished in 1968.  The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower, built in the Renaissance Revival and Gothic architectural styles, was 700-feet tall and opened in 1909. 

The Woolworth Building is another prominent building from the early twentieth century.  Furthermore, over a century after the start of its construction, the 792-foot tall building is still one of the one-hundred tallest buildings in the U.S. and one of the thirty tallest buildings in New York City.  Opened in 1913, it was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1966. 

TheConco Companies are the foremost supplier of concrete services for the Western U.S. We have built a reputation on superior concrete formwork, reinforcing, place and finish, shotcrete and other ancillary services that benefit from our vast experience. Our four regional offices serve California, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, and Nevada. 

Sources: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_skyscrapers, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatiron_Building

Short History of the Rise of U.S. Skyscrapers

Sales Force Tower Now Under Construction

Now that The Conco Companies are hard at work providing concrete services on the two tallest buildings currently under construction in the Western U.S., we were curious about the history of the nation’s earliest skyscrapers.  According to Wikipedia, it was the technological advancements that were available by the 1870s that “enabled the construction of fireproofed iron-framed structures with deep foundations, equipped with new inventions such as the elevator and electric lighting.”

Chicago and New York City were at the forefront of construction of the country’s tallest buildings, including the world’s first skyscraper, the 138-foot tall Home Insurance Building that opened in 1884 in Chicago.  During the late 1880s to the early 1890s, the financial district of Chicago experienced a boom in the construction of aesthetically pleasing skyscrapers that balanced practical commercial designs.  These large, square-shaped, palazzo-styled buildings were multi-functional with shops and restaurants at ground level and office space on the upper floors.  This era of skyscrapers was often referred to as “the products of the Chicago school of architecture”.  By 1892, the construction of skyscrapers higher than 150-feet was banned in the city.    

New York City’s skyscrapers were eclectic in design and many of them were much narrower towers than those being built in Chicago.  For five years, the world’s tallest building was the New York World Building, which opened in 1890 and was home to the now defunct newspaper of the same name.  The skyscraper was commissioned by Joseph Pulitzer and designed by George Browne Post.  The 20-story building (although by today’s standard would only be 16 or 18 stories) was 309-foot tall and 349-feet to the tip.  The skyscraper was demolished in 1955 in order to expand the Brooklyn Bridge entrance ramp.

Conco is one of the leading concrete contractors in the Western United States and offers a wide range of innovative, quality services.  Our concrete services include commercial, educational, parking and other construction development as well as public works projects.  We have regional offices serving Northern California, Southern California, Washington State, Oregon, Colorado and Nevada.

Source:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_skyscrapers