Credit: Original article published here.

DID YOU KNOW:

Reinforced concrete is the only building material that is highly resistant to both water and fire.

The original use of concrete has been traced back to ancient Egypt.

Now-a-days, construction companies are using scented form release agents to impart a pleasant smell in concrete, the most famous being bubble gum.

Court Avenue is the oldest concrete street in America, and it is still in use today.

In 1928, Eugene Freyssinet, a French civil and structural engineer, became the first person to practically apply the concept of prestressing to overcome concrete’s natural weakness against tension. He later went on to successfully build many bridges using prestressed concrete.

Concrete and cement are not the same thing- Concrete is a mixture of 60 – 65% aggregates like sand, gravel, and crushed stone, 15 – 20% water, and only 10 – 15% cement. When mixed, the cement and water harden, binding the aggregates into the solid mass we call concrete. So, there is no such thing as a cement sidewalk!

Concrete is used more than any other man-made material on the planet.

Three Gorges Dam is the largest concrete structure in the world, standing at 607 feet high and 7,575 feet long.

Before the development of radar in World War Two, the British erected parabolic acoustic mirrors – commonly called ‘listening ears’ – to detect incoming aircraft. A network of these enormous concrete sound reflectors was constructed along England’s coast during the early days of World War Two and can still be seen today.

The Empire State Building Generates More Revenue from its Observation Decks than from its 85 floors of office space.

There are 10 Million bricks in the Empire State Building.

Despite the colossal size of the project, the design, planning and construction of the Empire State Building took just 20 months from start to finish. Using an assembly line process to erect the skyscraper in a brisk 410 days. Using as many as 3,400 men each day, they assembled its skeleton at a record pace of four and a half stories per week.

Architecture Was Once an Olympic Sport.

Wells offers Continuing Educational Units (CEU) for Architects and Engineers through plant and project tours and educational Lunch and Learn events.

Rick Girard, LEED AP
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