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Downtown Danbury Transit

Connecticut Bomanite, working with the City of Danbury, CT, installed the Bomanite Imprint Systems and chose the Medium Ashlar Slate pattern and the Soldier Course Belgian Block pattern.  The previous existing streetscape improvements were constructed in 1993 and in need of replacement.  Instead of the higher cost of installing natural paving materials such as slate or granite, Bomanite Imprint Systems has been used in a wide variety of residential, commercial, and municipal applications to upgrade plain concrete or asphalt. Bomanite Imprint Systems, the original cast-in-place, colored, and imprinted architectural concrete paving, offers unmatched durability to withstand the toughest traffic loads and harshest environmental conditions.

For decorative concrete architectural paving, Bomanite Imprint Systems provides more than 400 distinct patterns and associated textures with a wide variety of standard and custom coloring options.  You can choose from many natural surfaces including slate, granite, limestone, sandstone, cobblestone, and used brick.  Bomanite molds are developed from natural products such as stone or wood as well as unconventional surfaces such as metal or plastic or whatever your imagination may bring to the table. Images, logos, borders, and highly custom textures are all part of the Bomanite offering.  For this project, Connecticut Bomanite received the 2021 Bronze Award for Best Bomanite Imprint Systems Project.

World Trade Center Tower Two

Bomanite Licensee, Beyond Concrete, was called upon to help with the Landscape Architects street design for the new World Trade Center Tower Two. The plan called for a street design with sitting area located between the two towers, connecting the next to be constructed Tower Two, and the newly finished Tower One.

Being that this project was the World Trade Center rebuild security was top notch during the installation. Working at the site required daily security passes for all Beyond Concrete’s crew members. It took as much as two hours each day to go through the security checks, lunch breaks required the General Contractor, Posillico Civil, Inc. to provide an escort so the Beyond Concrete team could return to the work area.

The theme of the design was to have the overall tone set in the gray family, starting from light gray at the building line and transitioning to dark gray by the street area. The project design consisted of approximately 7200 sq. ft. of 7” thick, epoxy reinforced concrete, poured in five twelve-foot-wide strips, each strip approximately 120 feet long. The 12 ft. wide strips were divided into 12’ x 12’ squares and saw cut into 3’ x 6’ rectangles for dimension and style.

The World Trade Center Tower project required multiple samples and conversations with the architect given the complexity of design and the various pour thicknesses the site dictated. The original request was for the Bomanite Exposed Aggregate Sandscape Texture System in five different shades of gray to be installed in sequence, exposing local sands within the integrally colored concrete.

It was determined that in order to have a consistent appearance there needed to be two processes used on site to accommodate the conditions that both resulted in the same finish. A bonded overlay for thinner sections and an unbonded topping slab for thicker. Once the process was determined and the architect saw the more decorative Bomanite Alloy finishes, the decision to use the Bomanite Exposed Aggregate Alloy System was clearly the best choice.

Some sections of the installation required priming and a mortar bed that was slurry overlayed with Bomanite Alloy Color Hardener. The standard areas used conventional concrete with the Bomanite Alloy Color Hardener applied in a traditional dry-shake fashion. All areas received the same final finishing and exposure of the fine reflective aggregates contained within the Alloy. The color started with Bomanite Nickel Gray Alloy and progressed towards the street with Shale Gray, Castle Gray, Coal Gray and ended with Cobblestone Gray.

Beyond Concrete achieved the Architects vision with the best Bomanite Decorative Concrete System and in conjunction provided a low-maintenance, high wear resistant, architectural concrete finish for the 2 World Trade Center Tower Street Design. For their outstanding work, Beyond Concrete received the 2018 Best Bomanite Exposed Aggregate Project Bronze Award. Bomanite Decorative Concrete at its finest!

DELO – Downtown East Louisville

As the owner, RMCS, planned a new development just to the east of historic downtown Louisville, Colorado, he secured the services of PCS Group who in turned designed walls, plazas, sidewalks and streets with distinctive concrete paving. PCS worked closely with Bomanite Licensee, Colorado Hardscapes to develop the color scheme, texture and finish of each area to be its own unique look, but as an overall development to be outstanding. The seat walls, planter walls and concrete columns received a custom Bomanite Sandscape Refined Exposed Aggregate finish using Cappuccino Color Hardener with flecks of mirror glass and blue glass. The wall sparkle as you walk by reflecting the sun’s light.

Plazas were poured with San Diego Buff Integral Color and uncolored concrete, with the majority of the areas having a Bomanite Sandscape Textured Exposed Aggregate finish, but some accent areas using a broom finish to really set off the textural differences in the concrete. The main drive through the development included black sand added to the San Diego Buff concrete mix to again achieve a unique look yet tying it together with the plazas. Seeded glass and rock was used as accent bands and crosswalks.

Integrating trench drains, truncate domes and tree grates, along with thousands of feet of sawcut joints resulted in an outstanding streetscape that sets DELO apart from many other municipal developments.

Washington NE 36th Street Bridge Roundabout

PROJECT SPECIFICATIONS/INFORMATION

Description:

The NE 36th Street Bridge earned Bomanite Licensee, Belarde Co. Inc. a 2012 Decorative Concrete Award from the American Society for Concrete Contractors’ Decorative Concrete Council in the category of Artistry, Over 5,000 Sq.Ft. Upon entering or exiting the bridge, drivers navigate around a custom-colored, Bomanite stamped concrete roundabout that directs the flow of traffic.  Alongside the roadways, pebble-studded concrete paths, a curving, sloping wall, complete the look of a river bank.

“The concrete elements of this are so unique,” says John Belarde, president of Belarde Co. Their success in pulling it off, he says, was partly thanks to their skills as a company and partly thanks to the clarity and specificity of the design concept.

Tanja Wilcox, senior associate at Seattle architecture firm J.A. Brennan Associates and aesthetic designer for the project, had her work cut out for her when developing a design concept for the bridge. Although the client was the city of Redmond, a lot of the money for the project was funded by Microsoft Corp. — because their main corporate campus sits on both sides of the 520. The overall objective, says Wilcox, was to transform the overpass into an enjoyable environment for drivers, cyclists and pedestrians. But the bridge also had to celebrate Redmond as a city, while giving a nod to its patron and beneficiary, Microsoft.

Wilcox and her team conceived a design that evokes the Sammamish River, that winds through the heart of Redmond, just north of the bridge site. By incorporating native plants and materials as well as subtle river motifs, like that of the Bomacron Creek Stone pattern, the design expresses Redmond’s beautiful natural surroundings.

View More: To read the full article and  more projects from Belarde Co:

East 54 Parking Plaza

PROJECT SPECIFICATIONS/INFORMATION

Description:

Bomanite Licensed Contractor, Carolina Bomanite, began working with Winston-Salem, N.C. Architects Dishner Moore more than a year in advance of the construction of this urban village of luxury condos, shops and dining in Chapel Hill, N.C. The Architect, Craig Dishner, “had a vision of creating a spectacular plaza design to be viewed and enjoyed at street level and above from the residential tenants”. After several mock-ups were completed and reviewed, a decision was made to use Bomanite’s Micro-Top as the topically applied coloration system over a custom “machine-swirl” integrally colored surface design for the plaza. Negotiations began with the General Contractor, Resolute Builders, to be the prime decorative flatwork contractor for this project. Carolina Bomanite had previously worked with the developer, East West Partners on other projects.

The initial phase began with the installation of the main entrance roundabout granite textured curb, along with 8000sf of dry-shake color- hardened Bomacron® Fishscale Granite Setts pattern paving. The curb was poured with an integral color at a low slump, hand shaped, then textured and barcut to resemble hand-placed granite.The ADA warning strip that followed the outer contour of the roundabout posed several problems. First, the original design called for a stamped pattern using geometric shapes. We soon realized that this would be both an installation, and aesthetic issue when installed. Carolina Bomanite quickly suggested a hand-tooled, grooved pattern that followed the radius of the contour. After several calls and letters to the town of Chapel Hill, an approval was given to install the grooved pattern. All parties agreed, this was an excellent solution to a difficult problem.

The plaza, a 25,000sf parking and mixed use space, was designed not only to be parking, but also become an entertainment venue on weekends and evenings. The decorative topping slab was designed to be a 4-7” integrally colored slab with the special “swirl” finish. High summer temperatures made working on this sub-slab almost unbearable. The decision was made to convert the 10-man crew to night work with forming beginning at 11:00pm and the first of 2 pours at 2-3:00am each morning. A cast-in-place stage with cascading steps was the first pour of this phase of the project, followed with several hundred ft. of ADA warning bands. Since the deck was previously waterproofed, all forms were set using sandbags for support. Only 2 finishers were allowed to complete the custom “machine-swirl” pattern in order to keep consistency throughout the project. After the plaza was installed, the 4-man finish crew came in to begin the layout and sawcut of the plaza design. A template was used to layout the geometric shapes. Precise layouts from the GC’s site superintendent Chris Hardee allowed the design to go in precisely to plan. After a thorough cleaning, the Bomanite® Micro-Top product was installed in a “reddish” color to compliment the decorative brick design used on the buildings exterior. Water based sealers were then applied to protect the colored areas.

Gendy Street @ Fort Worth Western Heritage Center

Texas Bomanite was brought in at the later stages of the project at which time color and pattern had not been selected. This project had a drop dead date for completion to coincide with the dedication of the “national cowgirl museum”. Working with the designer, the representatives of the Western Heritage Association and a Landscape Architect in Washington D.C., Texas Bomanite prepared 15 samples for approval.

Job site mockups were produced and then tweaked for final color and pattern. Texas Bomanite crews started construction on the circlular sidewalk located at the perimeter of the traffic circle. A custom curb mule was fabricated to specifications provided by the Western Heritage Association.

Carter & Burgess, Inc. provided an autocad drawing of the intersection so that Texas Bomanite could design and layout the construction joint pattern. Texas Bomanite suggested a design change for the lane divider header in order to transfer the loads (traffic). Once the curb and gutter and traffic lane dividers were installed the field paving started. Work phases started in April and final pours were made in May. This project was on a very tight schedule and was a very high profile for the city.