Project Showcase

Owner: JBG Company

General Contractor: Tishman Construction Company

Precast Erector: EDI, LLC

This magnificent headquarters building was constructed adjacent to a National Historical Landmark - The Pope Building, which is located off the National Mall in Washington, DC. The Pope Building's facade is made of very ornate cut limestone. Our project's design was to replicate this patterned building in terms of section and style - creating an extremely ornate and difficult precast building. Through our detailed plaster modeling process, we were able to construct these difficult sections and profiles in an extremely accurate and precise manner.

 This award winning project consisted of 55,000 square feet of buff acid-etch precast and 565 panels. The erection was completed one month ahead of schedule with almost zero remedial connections (which is not only a testament to Arban & Carosi but also the entire construction team). This project was precast-award Triple-Crown winner, receiving an APA Design & Manufacturing Excellence Award, PCI Design Award & WBC Craftsmanship Award. Beyond all the awards, this project is a great example (particularly in such a prominent location) of architectural precast at its finest!

Owner: American University

General Contractor: The Whiting-Turner Contracting Company

Precast Erector: E.E. Marr Erectors

Owner: Chevy Chase Bank

General Contractor: The Clark Construction Group, Inc.

Precast Erector: E.E. Marr Erectors

The location of this magnificent twin 20-Story tower project, at the corner of Wisconsin Avenue & East-West Highway, was unique for two factors. First, it was built on the site of the Might Mo’s at the Hot Shoppe, a favorite stumping ground for of our now President’s, Nicholas Carosi III, during his youth. Secondly, It was also located directly across the street from OMNI’s (the contactor) headquarters building, where hundreds of superintends and project managers could monitor our progress.

 The precast erection was completed 3 months faster than the contractor anticipated due to aggressively engineered window-unit panelization which minimized the panel count. The precast finish was a light off-white acid etch to match the limestone on the bottom two floors. The project stands tall in Bethesda and in heart and mind of everyone at Arban & Carosi.

Owner: Washington Metropolitan Airport Authority

General Contractor: Turner Construction Co.

Precast Erector: E.E. Marr Erectors

This was one of the most unique projects in our long history. The project entailed the construction of the underground main station for the new aerotrain at Dulles International Airport.

 Uniquely, the precast clad the interior of the underground station. The walls of the station were clad by yellow/tan acid-etch panels with a faceted 8’x4’ pattern. The train tunnels tubes were clad by sloped precast panels with a terrazzo finish (applied in our yard) on the face.

 The erection of these panels was extremely difficult. The panels had to be dropped onto a cart, from a hole through a skylight. They were then carted into position where they were erected by chain-falls, both manually and mechanically. This procedure was repeated over 600 times for each panel.

Every time we fly out of Dulles Airport – we are reminded of this quality work and craftsmanship.

General Contractor: Turner Construction Co.

Precast Erector: Erection Associates, LTD

This project, which mirrors an existing masonry-installed granite façade building, consisted of 800 panels and 105,000 square feet of architectural precast. The project also included a smaller grand entrance building.

 The project was originally budgeted with stone-clad precast on the entire façade, but through some early consultation with the architect and the contractor, we were able to come up with the sandblast mix that very closely matched the water-blasted granite. So in the end, the bottom three floors had all stone-clad precast, (both the polished and the water-blasted granite) while the upper floors had a combination of polished granite & sandblasted precast (to replace the water-blasted). This saved the project budget over two million dollars in stone procurement cost.

 This project shows the importance of early consultation. The earlier involvement we have with the project – the more help and benefit, we can be.

Owner: MedStar Health

General Contractor: Bovis Lend Lease

Precast Erector: Erection Associates, LTD

Owner: Gaylord Entertainment

General Contractor: Perini/Tompkins Joint Venture

Precast Erector: E.E. Marr Erectors

This Gensler designed mega-project, built as the centerpiece for the National Harbor in Maryland, consisted of 2200 panels and 300,000 square feet of architectural precast. Due to the scale & schedule of the project, it was joint-ventured with another precast plant which created additional challenges.

 The contrast on the precast was accomplished economically by having two different surface finishes of the same mix. The combination of sandblasting and acid-etching broke up the panels and the scale of this project. As noted by the APA Excellence Award Judge: “texturing of the panels beside the windows, while subtle, was handled beautifully”.

 Even with a challenging design phase & a difficult construction schedule, Arban & Carosi is very proud of this project. We remained steadfast to provide the highest quality precast product and as noted by the contractor: “the aesthetic quality of your precast product never became secondary...thank you, for your commitment and outstanding performance”.

Owner: Marymount University

General Contractor: James G. Davis Construction Co.

Precast Erector: EDI, LLC

Owner: JBG Company

General Contractor: HITT Contracting Company

Precast Erector: Old Dominion Erectors, Inc.

This project located in North Bethesda, MD consisted of 800 panels and 133,000 square feet of precast across two hotel towers and a large conference center. The precast on hotel is a combination of an acid-etch finish and sandblast finish; while the conference center also has granite-clad precast.

 One of the more unique features is the “missile shaped” trellis column wraps on the conference center. These panels were cast as two pieces and then combined in our yard to be erected as one piece. This eliminated the need for the steel column as our “missile” precast warp acting as the structural support.

 This beautiful hotel complex stands alone in the area not only for it hospitality, but also for its architectural grandeur, highlighted by beautiful architectural precast concrete.

Owner: United States Government

General Contractor: Clark / Balfour Beatty, JV

Precast Erector: E.E. Marr Erectors

This mega-project, which included over 1500 panels & 260,000 square feet of blast-resistant architectural precast, was made up of two large crescent shaped buildings connected by a huge clearstory atrium. The precast clad the majority of the elevations on the outside of the crescent.

 The majority of the panels were extremely large faceted window units with trapezoidal shaped window openings and angled V-Shaped jamb sections. The molding surfaces for these panels had to be exact as the straight & trapezoidal intersections all had to align. This was accomplished by building a master plaster model. Off this master model, four concrete molds were made all with the exact same proportion. Off these four molds over 600 panels were fabricated with perfect alignment. This process is well detailed under “Our Process” section.

 The end result was a well-proportioned building with unique lines and profiles, which catches your attention, not for its size, but for its beauty and sharpness.

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.

Owner: United States Government

General Contractor: Balfour Beatty Construction

Precast Erector: NONE

In March of 2006, Balfour Beatty, then known as Centex Construction, came to Arban & Carosi about partnering with them to build a monument to those you were killed in the terrorist attacks at the Pentagon on 9/11.

We met with the Architect, who was a professor at Columbia, to see if we could meet the tight tolerances both architecturally and mechanically to act as the base for 184 monuments on the Pentagon’s South lawn, where the plane hit the Pentagon. Two years later we began fabrication on the magnificent base monument to the 184 men and women who perished on that sad day. The model for the base was hand craved out of clay, from which we made a rubber mold to cast the monument bases.

There is not a building in our resume’ that will mean more to the men and women of Arban & Carosi who were responsible for this beautiful and meaningful memorial

Owner: JBG Company

General Contractor: James G. Davis Construction Co.

Precast Erector: Erection Associates, LTD

There aren’t many buildings in town that we can honestly say we clad twice…Potomac Center may be the only one.

In the early 1960’s, A&C cast over 700 V-Shaped column covers with a water-wash finish in our original plant in Alexandria, VA (as a teenager our president, Nick Carosi III, spent a summer finishing and loading these panels) . Forty years later, we took the old water-wash precast off the building and reclad with over 1300 panels with combination of an acid-wash and sand-blast finish.

 This project was also our first precast blast-designed project. The combination of a reclad and the blast design created many challenging connection issues. These connection issues were not only in our design but also with regard to the structural engineer of record, who had to reinforce the old structure in order to handle the blast loads.

 This building is more than a beautiful precast building - It’s a testament to our longevity and legacy of quality architectural precast in the Washington metropolitan area.

Owner: Crescent Reality

General Contractor: James G. Davis Construction Co.

Precast Erector: PEN Contracting

This project consisted of two buildings connected by a three-story garage/atrium building. This LEED-Platinum project is located in Crystal City (Arlington), VA over what used to be the old rail line depot and is now the headquarters for the Environmental Protection Agency.

 The building was clad with 210,000 square feet of architectural precast including 110,000 square feet of brick-faced (soap brick) precast. A soap brick is a real brick that is cut in half and cast into the panel (in lieu of using a thin brick). While this is more costly than using thin bricks, it does provide a much more “real brick” appearance. The brick panels were aggressively panelized to create window units in lieu of a stick built panelization. The panel joints were hidden nicely within the rowlock bonding pattern. The traditional precast was equally difficult. The finish was a buff acid-etch and the profile were dramatic, practically the upper cornice.

 This was far from an easy project, but one that everyone at Arban & Carosi is very proud to have completed.

Owner: Boston Properties

General Contractor: Centex Construction (Balfour Beatty)

Precast Erector: PEN Contracting

Two Freedom Square was one of the earlier buildings of the now famous Reston Planned Community. The project designed by the Smith Group was a challenge, for both the production/finishing crews, and the drafting/engineering department. There were hours of meetings with the contractor, architect and owner to make certain that this project was nearly perfect… and it was!

 The finishes on the 115,000 square feet of architectural precast was a combination of acid-washing, sandblasting and granite-clad casting. Staying ahead of the following trades erecting over 895 pieces was a task in itself. The project was one of the toughest molding jobs in our history due to the intricate shape and profiles. This award winning building will be a building that all of the Arban & Carosi Family will be proud participants for a long time to come.    

Owner: LCOR, Inc

General Contractor: Turner Construction Co.

Precast Erector: Erection Associates, LTD

In early 2000, we begin working as a design-assist partner (though it wasn’t called that back then) with Turner Construction on this mega-project consisting of 2050 panels and 180,000 square feet of architectural precast across five office buildings and two parking garages. After a year working with Turner and SOM on the precast design, we knew we had a landmark project.

 The office buildings are located in a horseshoe shape with the largest building located at the heel. Precast column covers and spandrel clad the first two floors of all the buildings while only the building elevations on the inside of the horseshoe are completely clad with precast. The precast panels on these elevations were predominately large window units with three precast finishes: an off-white acid-etch, an off-white sandblast & a grey acid-etch. The grill area (grey ribbed portion) was done through a composite mold of concrete and rubber in order to allow proper release.

 The project also featured a large amount of interior precast in the atrium of the large building. The interior precast is highlighted by a waterfall on the sides of the south entrance.

 While the façades on the campus have a bit of every building material: brick, metal panels, and windows - the precast on the inside of the horseshoe is what really captures the visitor’s attention. Everyone at Arban & Carosi is very proud to be a part of this project.

Owner: JBG Company

General Contractor: The Clark Construction Group, Inc.

Precast Erector: E.E. Marr Erectors

This Micheal Graves designed mega-project (two large buildings) located in Washington, DC consisted of 2000 panels and 400,000 square feet of architectural precast. Due to the scale & schedule of the project, it was joint-ventured with another precast plant which created additional challenges. The end result is a beautiful multi-color façade with dramatic depth and profile changes.

 The finishes of the project were all an acid-etch finishes. The colors were achieved using a combination pigments and colored sands. This allowed us to provide the most consistent and vibrant precast color.

 The façade also included free-standing round columns which had to be cast as separate panels, connected in our yard and erected through holes in the precast parapet. This complex feature creates a grand element unique to most buildings.

 This project, while massive in scale, is one of the best examples of the versatility of architectural precast.