Concrete Formwork Archives | The Conco Companies

On October 26, 2023, the ACI So Cal Chapter hosted its prestigious Concrete Awards in Downtown LA, recognizing outstanding achievements in the field. Conco proudly received honors for two remarkable projects: the Mt. SAC Student Center and The Grand.

The Mt. SAC Student Center was specifically acknowledged for its excellence in the Low-Rise Building category. Notably, this project boasts a sophisticated foundation system strategically distributed across various elevations on two different levels. The cantilevered nonisometric roof slab required thousands of Square Feet of shoring to be installed, maintained, and removed. However, once complete, the red roof capping the 18,000 Cubic Yards of concrete was quite iconic for this community college. Designed to provide an inclusive and inviting atmosphere fostering student engagement, the first floor will feature a convenience store and additional study spaces for both individual and group use. Kudos to the entire team, including Tilden Coil, MHP Structural Engineers, CEMEX, and HPI Architects.

The Mt. SAC Student Center

Meanwhile, The Grand-LA received accolades for its excellence in the High-Rise category. This ambitious project involved three substantial mat pours, totaling an impressive 25,500 cubic yards of concrete. The cumulative concrete poured thus far stands at a remarkable 83,201 cubic yards, covering foundations, structural slabs, columns, walls, and shotcrete. The mixed-use development includes a 39-story residential tower, a 20-story Equinox Hotel connected by a courtyard, and 176,000 square feet of retail space featuring shops, restaurants, and a movie theater complex. Developed through a public-private partnership and spearheaded by Related Companies, with design by renowned architect Frank Gehry (also responsible for the adjacent Disney Music Hall), The Grand project stands as a testament to collaborative excellence.

The Grand - LA

Congratulations to the entire team, which includes AECOM, DCI Engineers, Catalina Pacific, and Gehry Partners, LLP.

The Conco Companies has been hard at work on The Port of Vancouver Terminal 1 project in Vancouver, Washington. This project is a mixed-use development that will include office, retail, and hotel spaces. The building consists of 120,000 square feet of slab on grade with a 5-story parking garage. At Level 6, it splits into two towers that will be connected by a skybridge.

Photo taken April 14, 2023

Another turn-key project for Conco, we are providing reinforcing, formworks, concrete pumping, place and finish work, and shotcrete as well. For this project Conco will pour 711,390 sq. feet of deck on this project, which is anticipated to be completed in September 2024. There will be more than 8 million pounds of rebar placed on this project, in addition to almost 392,000 linear feet of cable and 35,370 cubic yards of concrete.

Photo taken January 13, 2023

Jeremy Bacon, Project Manager at Conco for 9 years, says “The most interesting part of this project to me is the design. As part of that design, board formed columns, walls, and exposed concrete beams along the south and west sides of the building will highlight Conco’s craftmanship in the area for years to come.”

Jeremy Bacon (L), Paul Gannon (M), Kevin Clark (R) , Project Leadership for the Port of Vancouver Terminal 1

The Port of Vancouver, Terminal 1 takes up two city blocks and is over a spread of 120,000 sf. The project will be split into two separate towers after the parking Levels are complete. To meet the scheduled durations, Conco has two crews performing work at the same time. Scheduling and coordination between two separate crews, the GC and MEP subs takes a lot of effort. Kevin Clark, General Foreman for this project praised our crews by saying “Manpower management has been a great accomplishment between foremen of all the trades. Daily meetings between the trades have allowed for effortless teamwork. We all know each other’s goals which helps to maintain continuity on the project. Robertson and Olson’s Superintendent, Todd Howem has been a huge help coordinating all of the subcontractors. ”

Paul Gannon is the project Superintendent for The Port of Vancouver Terminal 1 and has worked for Conco for 10 years. He found the most interesting part of this project to be “The sheer size of the building! That, coupled with the amount of rebar that has been placed, especially in the foundations, is really something.” Paul also felt that the scheduling of this job posed a challenge but said that “A unique accomplishment of this job was maintaining the schedule while basically building two buildings at the same time! The transitioning of foundations to slab on grade and then into elevated decks was challenging on this large footprint.”

When this project is complete ZoomInfo, a Vancouver-based company, will move into both towers of Terminal 1, making the location it’s global headquarters.

The architects on this project are DLR Group and West of West Architecture & Design

Tasman-east-apartments-09.24-e1667422692548-1280x1310.jpg

In an incredible schedule of 14 mat pours in 9 weeks that were all turn key projects for Conco, one week especially stood out. September 24^th through October 1, 2022, brought Conco four mat pours in one week. It started with the Tasman East Apartments, then Dwight & Milvia and The Station jobs. We finished up the week at the 24^th & Waverly project. These projects are all turn-key projects for Conco. In addition to concrete pumping, we are providing the rebar, place and finish work, formworks, and shotcrete.

Conco poured 13,794 yards of concrete at these four mat pours in that week alone. We averaged 450 yards poured per hour for most of the pours. Each jobsite is unique in its challenges and our teams impressed not only us, but the General Contractors, the City’s, and the other trades on the jobs with their diligence and advanced planning. We not only got the job done, but got it done as safely as possible.

Our Reinforcing services set the stage for each of these successful pours. Conco Reinforcing delivered 100 loads of rebar, totaling 4,000,000 pounds for the combined four pours for that week alone. This was all made possible with the contribution from Conco’s state of the art rebar fabrication facility in Benicia, CA. The detailers and project engineers at the office and the crew at our rebar facility tirelessly to get the rebar ready for each of these jobs.

It was a good week, and these pours were injury free thanks to the hard work of our Safety team and the Conco employee’s commitment to safety on the jobsite. Conco strives to provide its customers with not just the best option but the easiest one. We truly strive to be a one stop shop for our customers and passionately provide a service that has created strong relationships over our 60 years in the industry. With one phone call you can take care of it all.

Most high-rise towers follow a similar design pattern. The most common design is for the structure to have floors that stack over one another with virtually little deviation from one floor to the next. Look at any city skyline and you will see an abundance of buildings that fit this mold. The consistency of the floorplan allows for easier and less expensive engineering and construction due to the design pattern’s repetitive nature.

The Conco Companies has reached the first milestone in the Lamp Lodge project, an 82-unit affordable housing community in downtown Los Angeles that will replace an existing Single-Room Occupancy building. Conco is providing concrete services including concrete pumping, formwork, shotcrete, place and finish, rebar, and excavation.

Lamp Lodge will be a 7-story building with a community room, laundry facility, second-floor courtyard, garden, and 16 parking spaces. Of the 82 units, one will be a manager’s apartment, and the rest will house homeless, special needs, and low-income residents. The 81 residential units will be priced for residents making only 30-35% of the area’s median income.

Lamp Lodge is designed by KFA Architecture and developed by Meta Housing Corporation, which specializes in affordable, mixed-income apartments and complexes, and public-funded projects that promote job opportunities to residents.

Conco was selected as the concrete services provider because the Lamp Lodge project requires fast-paced construction, and has a small footprint jobsite that requires precise logistics. The project utilizes over 2,500 cubic-yards of poured concrete for 22,000 square-feet of structural decks. Construction is expected to be completed by the first quarter of 2022, and is one of several affordable housing projects Conco is proud to help build.

Conco is one of the foremost suppliers of concrete services for the Western U.S. We started in 1959 in the Bay Area by offering clients the best value on a broad range of concrete services and products. Since then, we have taken a leading role as top concrete contractors in the region. We have regional offices serving California, Oregon, Nevada, Colorado, and Washington.