Olathe West High School opened in the fall of 2017, designed using architecturally advanced techniques to create an innovative and futuristic learning environment for their students. The three-story school, spanning 375,000 square feet, focuses on the use of technology, open, modular learning spaces, efficiency and collaboration among students. A centrally-located learning commons provides student gathering and education collaboration spaces that connect to the entire building.
The school is designed with four wings where students attend classes. The building also includes an open concept Library with 60 planting boxes on a growing wall, four mini-libraries overlooking the main first floor library, a Public Safety Academy, Green Tech learning center, media center, performing arts center with retractable seating, gymnasiums with a one-ninth mile track around the top and a 200 square foot rooftop greenhouse.
Bomanite Licensee, Musselman & Hall Contractors, LLC worked with the project designers, Hollis + Miller and Stantec, to provide a sustainable low maintenance topping and polishing technique that is becoming a standard in school construction. Musselman & Hall Contractors, LLC placed 25,000 square-feet of 2”-thick Bomanite Renaissance Deep Grind system as an unbonded topping slab integrating local aggregates and references. Once the slab was cured, it was ground down to expose the coarse aggregates and then polished to a semi-gloss concrete finish.
“Bomanite’s Renaissance Deep Grind is a high-end, readily customized decorative concrete that really bring designs to life,” says Dan Kroesen, a Vice President with Musselman & Hall Contractors. The Bomanite Renaissance Deep Grind polished concrete system represents a custom mix of individually sourced aggregates, sands, and added integral colors that can be installed as a slab on grade or unbonded overlay. Once the concrete sets, it is milled, ground, and finally polished to produce a beautiful, solid surface that looks and wears very similar to terrazzo.
While every type of flooring requires regular maintenance, one of the advantages of the Bomanite Renaissance Deep Grind process is the long-term cost positives. Because the floor is treated with chemical hardeners that reduce porosity, while still allowing it to breath, fully-exposed hard aggregates are the predominate wear surface rather than an applied sealer or coating. Correctly selecting aggregates by size, type, and color allows the floor to wear naturally while supporting superior stain resistance to traditional concrete because no film-forming agents are required to maintain a Bomanite Renaissance floor.
The Bomanite Renaissance system checks a lot of boxes – tremendous design flexibility, first-cost savings, lower cost maintenance, making Bomanite Decorative Concrete the right investment for long lasting beauty and benefit for school construction projects and its communities.
AWARDS: Musselman & Hall Contractors, LLC earned the Best Bomanite Custom Polishing Silver Award 2019 for the high-end, readily customized decorative concrete installation at Olathe West High School.
