Architect: SmithGroup Joint Venture
Owner: The Shooshan Company
General Contractor: The Clark Construction Group, Inc.
Precast Erector: EDI, LLC
This project located in Arlington, VA consisted of 80,000 square feet of blast-resistant architectural precast. Through beautifully executed color and depth changes, the precast façade creates a dramatic appearance that stands out from the crowd. The combination of the two acid-etch finishes, a light off-white and a darker “chocolate” color, provides the building with great contrast.
The most unique feature of the building is the simulated spilt-face rock texture. After not being able to find a formliner that gave the architect their desired appearance – we created our own. This was done by casting a soft slab of concrete and then chiseling and fracturing the surface in order to simulate the split face rock. We then pour liquid rubber over the fractured concrete slab to create our own formliner. The formliners were then placed in our molds for casting and then moved around every day in order to ensure that no panel looked the same. This created a truly natural look that makes this a truly special building.
To everyone at Arban & Carosi this project is more than simply a beautiful building; it’s a perfect example of the innovation and creativeness of the Arban & Carosi staff when presented with a challenge.