CONCRETE: IT'S NOT JUST FOR WALKING ON ANYMORE

BY LUCY BODILLY
Special to the Journal

Concrete may seem like a pedestrian substance to most people, but for others it is an artistic medium equal to Italian marble.

After all, it is really liquid stone, and entrants in recent Washington Aggregates and Concrete Association contests can testify that it can be made to flow in almost any configuration.

"It is really versatile in the shapes you can achieve," said Tom Mason, assistant sales manager for Lone Star Northwest. "It is limited only by the type of form you can make."

Concrete artwork is most commonplace as architectural concrete; reveals and arches for example.

"There the architect wants to improve the appearance of the concrete," Mason said. But the final product will always be determined by the experience of the crew that is applying it.

From architectural concrete to sculptures, the most common problems in concrete artwork are honeycombing, caused when the aggregate is not thoroughly mixed with the cement, sand and other components; sand streaking caused by adding too much water to the mix; and an uneven surface caused by air bubbles sticking to the concrete form.

The problems can be remedied by using a good mix, and by vibrating the mix inside the form.

Mason speaks from first hand experience, having helped sculptor Royce Milaskey create a 10,000 pound concrete sculpture of a mermaid that sits in the entrance to IMCO Inc.'s headquarters building in Seattle.

There a special mix was devised to pick up as much detail of the sculpture as possible. Pea rock, fly ash, and microsilica brought out so much detail that even fingerprints left on the latex mold can be seen in the final piece of work.

Surprisingly, Lone Star used the same concrete mix for the mermaid as for the topping mix on the I-90 bridge project.

Shotcrete also ranks high as an artistic expression using concrete. Natural Creations, a Seattle firm specializing in swimming pools, often creates shotcrete pools with grottos and caves.

The average price of such a project is between $250,000 and $500,000, said Casey Castillo, company owner.

One of his current projects is the swimming pool at Harriet Bullitt's Sleeping Lady Retreat and Conference Center in Leavenworth. There the company is creating a canyon pool and an indoor cave and bar.

"The pool is so realistic that you will think that you are really in a canyon, swimming," Castillo said.

The walls of the indoor cave are highlighted by pieces of crystal, which are individually illuminated. In the preliminary stages of design, the company uses scale modeling to help anticipate problems that may not be evident in two dimensional drawings. Sight lines, circulation patterns and colors are then easily analyzed.

The company also has wide variety of rock and tree molds taken on field expeditions.

"This area of work is really increasing," Castillo said.

He enjoys the field because his clients have lots of discretionary money and often give him free reign to design his projects.

Return to Concrete96