Architectural Concrete Co Inc history

In 1836, the first test of tensile and compressive strength took place in Germany.

The first home built using reinforced concrete was a servant’s cottage constructed in England by William B. Wilkinson in 1854.

Between 1835 and 1850, systematic tests to determine the compressive and tensile strength of cement were first performed, along with the first accurate chemical analyses. It wasn’t until about 1860 that Portland cements of modern composition were first produced.

In 1867 Joseph Monier, a French gardener, took out a patent on some reinforced garden tubs and later patented some reinforced beams and posts used for guardrails for roads and railways.

In 1875, American mechanical engineer William Ward completed the first reinforced concrete home in the United States It still stands in Port Chester, New York.

Ransome started building with steel-reinforced concrete in 1877 and patented a system that used twisted square rods to improve the bond between steel and concrete.

In 1879, Wayss bought the rights to a system patented by a Frenchman named Monier, who started out using steel to reinforce concrete flower pots and planting containers.

In 1885, an English engineer developed a more efficient kiln that was horizontal, slightly tilted, and could rotate.

1889 – First reinforced concrete bridge – Alvord Lake Bridge, San Francisco

1891 – First concrete street in America – Bellefontaine, Ohio

By 1897, Sears Roebuck was selling 50-gallon drums of imported Portland cement for $3.40 each.

The Vienne River Bridge in Chatellerault, France, built in 1899, is one of the most famous reinforced concrete bridges in the world.

In 1902, August Perret designed and built an apartment building in Paris using steel-reinforced concrete for the columns, beams and floor slabs.

His better known works are in or around Paris, such as the delicately facaded apartment building at 25 bis Rue Franklin, completed in 1903.

High-rise construction in concrete progressed slowly forward from the Ingalls Building in 1904.

In 1909, Thomas Edison received a patent for the first long kiln.

In 1911, the Risorgimento Bridge was built in Rome.

* 1913 – First Ready-Mix delivery – Baltimore

* 1915 – Colored concrete – L.M. Scofield, the first company to produce color for concrete

In 1921, he built two gigantic parabolic-arched airship hangars at Orly Airport in Paris.

Notre Dame du Raincy, constructed in 1922, represented a significant departure from anything built in concrete before and is generally regarded as a masterpiece of architectural design.

In 1928, he was granted a patent for pre-stressed concrete.

In 1930, air-entraining agents were used for the first time in concrete to resist damage from freezing and thawing — a decided boon to cold-weather building practices across the United States and the world.

Columns of blocks being filled with concrete at the Hoover Dam in February 1934

The Kaufman House (Fallingwater), built in 1936, is a tour de force in the use of the cantilever.

The Grand Coulee Dam in Washington, completed in 1942, is the largest concrete structure ever built.

Brad Bowman developed the Bomanite process, the original cast-in-place, colored, textured and imprinted architectural concrete paving, in the middle 1950's in Monterey, California.

Wright's claim to an organic basis for his designs and the need to exploit the "plastic" nature of reinforced concrete reached a high point with his design of the Guggenheim Museum in 1956.

His most striking building is the restaurant at Xochimilco, built in 1958, consisting of six identical paraboloid vaults.

When the far-flung company was at its' peak, Hennebique was fulfilling more than 1500 contracts annually (Collins, 1959). More than any other individual he was responsible for the rapid growth of reinforced concrete construction in Europe.

The Chicago 60story high-rise, erected in 1962, heralded the beginning of the use of reinforced concrete in modern skyscrapers and with it, competition for the steel frame.

1963 – Assembly Hall @ University of Illinois – first concrete sports dome

Place Victoria in Montreal, constructed in 1964, reached height of 624 ft utilizing 6000 psi concrete in the columns.

* 1970’s – Fiber reinforcement – method to strengthen concrete

The Pantheon's clear span of 142 ft dwarfed previous spans and created nothing less than an architectural revolution in terms of the way interior space was perceived (Mainstone, 1975)

from "Reinforced Concrete: Preliminary Design for Architects and Builders" by R.E. Shaeffer, McGraw-Hill, 1992.

Concrete core samples tested in 1995 showed that the concrete has continued to gain strength and has higher-than-average compressive strength.