For more than 56 years, Shaw & Sons has been a leader in the creation and installation of architectural concrete. Combining extensive knowledge of concrete as a building material with artistic design inspiration for which Shaw and Sons is known, the company’s architectural products are found in many of Southern California’s landmark buildings and institutions. These include the Nixon Library, Santa Anita Race Track, the J. Paul Getty Villa Museum, University of Southern California, Ahmanson Theatre, South Coast Repertory, Fashion Island, a themed retail/entertainment district in Anaheim, and the Beverly Hills Hotel. Every project no matter how big or small reflects the company’s extensive planning and precision engineering, coupled with its patented concrete materials and craftsmanship to ensure the highest quality work that lasts for many years with minimal cost and maintenance.
At the southern edge of ultra modern Century City are what remains of the grand old studios of the 20th Century Fox. Century City, with its glitzy array of hotels, shopping centers and towering skyscrapers, was built on what used to be the back lot of the 20th Century Fox movie studio, which is why they called the new complex “Century City.” Most of the studio’s facilities have been relocated elsewhere to make room for the shopping center. But a good part of the old Fox studios has survived and still remain busy making movies and TV dramas.
Located on the landmark Fox Studios lot, the new Fox Network Center and Executive Building combines operation of Fox and its parent company, News Corporation of America. The two adjacent buildings are five-story structures built over a three-story underground parking structure. Fox Network Center consolidates the multiple Fox broadcasting activities previously scattered throughout the LA area. The center is a 24-hour , fully digital television broadcast facility for the nation’s fourth largest network. It houses the technical operations of Fox cable channels. The new Executive Building is the West Coast headquarters for the executive and administrative offices of the multimedia entertainment conglomerate. Amenities include a 10,000 square-foot restaurant, a 65-seat private screening room and a large “blue sky” media laboratory. 
For the Fox Studios project, Shaw & Sons worked closely from the beginning with the architect, HLW International LLP, to establish construction procedures, budgets and working relationships. Extensive team pre-planning resulted in an exhaustive review of all project details, selection of the best materials for the job, as well as achieving optimum esthetic value and durability. Shaw & Sons excels in the design and construction of architectural walls such as those used in the Fox Studios project. Architectural walls are built with the same integrity as retaining walls; plazas and hardscapes built by Shaw & Sons contain reinforcing steel similar to that used in pre-cast concrete wall construction. Structural mix designs used by Shaw & Sons are comparable to the company’s high-rise pour techniques to efficiently and effectively put down large volumes of concrete.
THEMED RETAIL/ENTERTAIMENT DISTRICT, ANAHEIM, CAThis 20-acre outdoor shopping, dining and entertainment center lies in the heart of Anaheim. Inspired by the famous Tivoli Gardens of Denmark, this popular district uses a complex but comfortable garden environment to integrate a variety of building types and uses. It is a place where resort guests, convention-goers, and local residents come and enjoy a variety of dining experiences, see a movie, hear live music, purchase a gift, or to simply people watch and enjoy the ambience. And like the Tivoli Gardens, this commercial center has a different character during the day than it does after dark when its lighting and nightlife create a more eclectic, energetic environment.
Key to the character of the area both day and night is the landscape, which became a critical unifying force because of the irregularly shaped project site. The site extends more than 1,500 feet from the Main Entrance Plaza over a bridge and on to the nearby hotel. The landscape plan takes advantage of the site’s unique shape as a foundation for spatial definition and views.
An organic design concept symbolized by a vine ties together this themed retail dining center’s many parts. The vine motif is expressed in a series of long curvilinear forms in the pavement installed by Shaw & Sons that visually lead guests from each area to the next, “a connective tissue that also introduces a vocabulary of stem, leaf, and flower…” From the vine motif paving patterns that become leaf-shaped, seat –wall planters and blossoms become fountains.The vine inspired design connects everything from light standards to trash receptacles. The vine pattern in the paving even extends in the floors of some of the retail, restaurant and other buildings, tying them visually to the outdoor spaces.
This Anaheim project is one of Shaw & Sons most interesting and challenging. Countless hours were invested by the company in pre-planning to develop and implement procedures and methods to construct six acres of hardscape and related materials on schedule.
First phase of pre-planning encompassed fitting into a fixed budget all of the clients needs and desired selection of materials. The goal was met through an extensive sample and mock-up process with specific budget goals. Next was a phasing plan developed by Shaw & Sons to break the project into 17 individual phases, and then the construction of each individual phase.Utilizing Shaw & Sons’ strengths in schedule tracking and construction, and its ability to run separate carpenter crews for difficult areas, enabled the company to build multiple areas in unison while Shaw’s finishing crews placed o pumped concrete daily for over five months. Everyday, the Shaw project management team dept in sync with a daily yardage report that corresponded with, and tied to, pre=scheduled end dated. As each of the 17 individual areas was completed, ownership would walk the finished phase and sign off. Then Shaw & Sons used low-cost, virgin mill carpet to protect and cure each individual segment until all phases were complete.
To stay well within the design budget, a low-cost, reinforce field paving was balanced with a medium-cost green granite Lithocrete vine and Lithocrete glass leafs if multiple colors and designs. Within these design considerations, a curvilinear cold joint plan was created to work with approximately 16-foot by 16-foot, to 20-foot by 20-foot, grids and was enhanced to meet the typical projections that promote cracking in concrete panels. That is, most of the cold joint layouts radiate from the points of leaf shape designs, building columns, light bollards, etc.With the help of Fong, Hart, Schneider + Partners, landscape architects, Shaw & Sons pre-worked the civil elevations to produce a “flatter,” easier plaza for people to walk through. This is typically a grossly over-looked item by industry standards, but has become a signature quality that people recognize when viewing or walking a plaza, facility or retail area constructed by Shaw & Sons. With digital instruments to lay the project, the company’s field personnel look for code violations in elevations and find and correct them during forming, before placing and finishing the job.
Three individual foundations were also constructed in this development utilizing Shaw & Sons’ patent for constructing sedimentary layered walls. This created unique, unearthed appearing walls with large crevices that revealed sands, mica pyrite and other minerals, accenting the same green granite that was used in the Lithocrete vine.
HOLLYWOOD & HIGHLAND, HOLLYWOOD, CAHollywood & Highland is at the center of entertainment, dining, and nightlife on one of the world’s most famous streets. Hollywood & Highland is home to the Kodak Theater, the permanent home of the Academy Awards and many other high profile televised events, as well as being the second largest attraction for visitors to Southern California. Since opening November 9, 2003, millions of people have visited the Hollywood & Highland entertainment complex, the first major development in the current renaissance of the Hollywood community.
Hollywood & Highland also includes nightclubs, over 60 specialty shops, public art exhibition, six new movie screens at the Mann Chinese Complex, seven of LA’s finest restaurants, and the best photo spot of the Hollywood sign anywhere, all surrounded by architecture designed to mirror a 1916 classic movie set.Because millions of people are exposed each year to this landmark project, it was essential that the specialty decorative elements such as the concrete and Lithocrete provided by Shaw & Sons were top notch. In addition, the massive size and logistically challenging aspects of the project required a professional and cooperative team to integrate these elements into the overall construction fabric.
Of particular to the many visitors to Hollywood and Highland is “The Road to Hollywood” public art piece. This element literally draws the public into the project and captivates their interest all the way to the ultimate view- the Hollywood sign. The decorative colored concrete heralds the red carpet that anyone can walk upon and feel like a star.
