Vertical & Carved Concrete

With a passion for art and a love of sculpting, painting and pottery, Joshua Annis had the opportunity of a lifetime presented to him at a young age and at a time when he had no direction in his life and then along came concrete.

Structurally unbeatable, decorative forms and form-liners are creating a timely and profitable advantage on more and more jobsites, big and small.

Anyone visiting the Bosch Tool outdoor booth at World of Concrete 2011 could not have missed this tool-carved decorative concrete work created by Steven Ochs and Gerald Taylor.

We here at Concrete Decor always welcome submissions of photos from concrete artisans around the world. When we received a particularly attractive batch from an artist in Argentina, we decided to share them with you.

A pool in a four-star hotel in Italy gives new meaning to the phrase “deep end.” This pool, known as the Y-40 or “The Deep Joy,” in the Montegrotto Terma region of Padua, Italy, features a plunging crevasse that sinks to 138 feet (42 meters), a depth that could easily engulf a 13-story building.

Owners of commercial and retail establishments are discovering the benefits of beautiful, easy-to-clean concrete walls.

In the world of theming, epoxy is still an underutilized tool for creating levels of detail and realism second to none. For example, Polygem Inc. has spent years developing its 307 series of epoxy among others that are custom-formulated for this exact type of work.

You might think that rappelling from cliffs, learning about orangutan habitats and studying the prehistoric skeleton of a triceratops are activities without much relevance to decorative concrete.

Most cellars consist of pretty straightforward temperature control and wine-racking systems but Nathan Giffin, owner of Creative Rock Forming and the creative powerhouse behind a recent wine cellar project in Naperville, Ill., has rather a different idea of what a private wine cellar can be.

The language barrier was the least of the obstacles a team of two professors and a student from Southern Arkansas University had to overcome during a weeklong trip to Cuba last November for an art project with the University of Artemisa. The saga began with a lack of supplies and ended with the death of Fidel Castro the night before the Americans left.

Cabela’s, a national retailer of hunting, fishing and outdoor gear, designs its stores with elaborate dioramas of outdoor scenes teeming with life. Besides taxidermists, artists and landscapers, the chain has come to rely on the talents of decorative concrete professionals to help bring these displays to life.

Situated in an industrial zone on Munich, Germany’s north side, an eye-catching building hosts production, showroom and office spaces for textile print and embroidery. Known as The Textilmacher, this three-story building has a precast concrete facade reminiscent of creased fabric.

In August 2010, the Assiniboine Park Conservancy in Winnipeg contacted Randall Klassen to get a quote for the demolition and removal of the Assiniboine Park Zoo’s Tropical House. The house had fallen into disrepair and the conservancy wanted to replace it with a rocky tropical oasis for animals, birds and plants.

Florida’s Miami Beach is a part of the country known for its high real estate prices, but the penthouse condominium sales price of $60 million for the Faena House Saxony Condo set a new high.

Vertical Artisans, launched in January 2008 at Verticalartisans. com, presents training videos and articles by experts. The site aims to offer a broader perspective than can be found at schools or training centers that, besides being bound by the limits of time and space, are often devoted to one manufacturer’s product line or one artisan’s techniques.

If you apply vertical concrete, carve concrete walls or create cast pieces, sooner or later you may have to face a painful truth: Traditional metal lath can be troublesome.

With more than 30 years of experience as a professional artist — and a darn good one at that — Thom Hunt has worked his magic at more happy places on Earth than even Walt Disney could have imagined.

An Australian company that specializes in polished concrete and seamless flooring and wall solutions, Honestone, recently completed restoration to give the church new life. The church, which has been affectionally called “Barneys,” enjoyed flooring, a renewed altar area, stairs and a stunning curved wall by Honestone.

The Streets at SouthGlenn, a sprawling new shopping destination in south Denver, boasts a block-long urban park with a brick fireplace, tall "legacy trees," gardens and cafes, and a centerpiece: a grand, European-style fountain, more than 16 feet tall with four falls.

A visually striking public art project near the University of Simon Fraser in Vancouver, British Columbia, was the result of science and engineering intersecting, orchestrated by a concrete artisan who was skilled enough to make it happen.

Check in and check out three examples of decorative concrete at its finest, in Georgia, Tennessee and California.

Concrete artist Emily McClintick has launched a new website showcasing her work. These images are just a taste of what you'll find on the Concrete Portfolio page of the website.

CTS Cement Manufacturing Corp. sent us a story about an enormous waterscape at Cypress Breeze Plantation, a private gated development in north Florida. The job was done by Muud Concrete Design (Multiple Use Unlimited Design), a Los Angeles outfit formed by artisans Adrian Gascon and Neil Hughes.