Southern California's Sullivan Concrete Textures

Dreams Up New Ways to Top Concrete

Juliet Farmer,ConcreteNetwork.Com Columnist

Since 1964, Sullivan Concrete Textures has poured millions of square feet of architectural concrete paving throughout Southern California in area airports, hotels, civic centers, theme parks, retail centers and numerous residential developments.

The Costa Mesa-based company's product line includes Patene Artectura, stamped and colored concrete, various toppings, Grasscrete®, and Aggretex™. The company founder, Francis Sullivan, was the first Bomanite Corporation licensee, as well as the first contractor to offer stamped concrete in Southern California. After working in Carmel with Bomanite's founder Brad Bowman, Sullivan started his Costa Mesa company in 1964 and became a Bomanite licensee in 1970.

Sullivan Concrete Textures has built a reputation as a pioneer specialist in all types of architectural concrete, especially stamped and colored concrete systems. Their cornerstone is their superior workmanship in decorative concrete and their ability to offer numerous creative surface options to their clients. All of their textures can be combined to create specific design requirements—from wall colorations, to rustic country floors, to gleaming modern spaces.

By offering Bomanite products, Sullivan Concrete Textures is backed by an industry leader in providing a variety of high-quality concrete paving and flooring products. As such, other Bomanite licensees from all over the world have visited Sullivan Concrete Textures to view their designs and workmanship.

The company is also constantly working with architects (mainly in the commercial and high-end residential arena), dreaming up new and innovative ideas in decorative concrete in Santa Barbara, Ventura, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

For the Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach Resort & Spa, which has a strong Andalusian theme evoking the sunlit courtyards and patios of southern Spain, Sullivan Concrete Textures worked seven days a week utilizing anywhere from 12 to 20 men per day to create the more than 200,000 square feet of decorative concrete paving required for the job.

And for the construction of Disney's California Adventure park, Sullivan Concrete Textures had the task of replicating nature with concrete, creating unique slate design patterns and wood plank patterns. Their work can also be spotted in Disney's Toontown and along Main Street, as well as in Jurassic Park (Universal Studios).

For the upcoming East Side Light Rail Project, spanning from East Los Angeles to downtown, the company will be providing stamped concrete, including curbs, gutters and walkways at terminals, crosswalks and street intersections in East Los Angeles.

"We're doing up an area that's depreciated in value architecturally," explains Francis of the project, which holds sentimental value for him. "My grandparents lived there long time ago, but the neighborhood has gone the way of old age...I'm pleased to be a part of the project—helping it look as it did a long time ago."

One of the company's latest innovations is Aggretex for exposed aggregate surfaces. Aggretex is a cementitious matrix blend used to produce various surface finishes without requiring hand broadcasting of decorative aggregates. Like frosting on a cake, Aggretex allows contractors to be more creative with aggregates.

Reenie Sullivan, part-owner and vice president of Sullivan Concrete Textures, explains that the cementitious slurry that contains the decorative aggregate is blended onsite and applied to freshly poured concrete, forming a monolithic structure.

"The decorative aggregate gives the surface color," she adds. "Aggretex provides a tight blend and even disbursement of aggregate."

In the Bomanite product family, Sullivan Concrete Textures has used Patene Artectura chemical stains in various projects, such as Carousel restaurant in Glendale, Foothill Town Center's food court in Foothill, The Yard House restaurant in Rancho Cucamonga, Napa Rose restaurant and the Hyperion Theater in Disneyland, and the Grand Californian hotel at Disneyland.

The company offers a unique coloration process for custom wall liners to create the realism of natural stone surfaces. They also use Grasscrete, a solution for softening hard surfaces that can reduce storm water runoff and aid in erosion control with a cast-in-place monolithic porous pavement, which meets greenspace zoning requirements.

The company uses Bomanite and Bomacron® colored and textured concrete and Bomanite thinset overlays to create stamped and colored concrete in any style, texture and color. They have used various materials and techniques to craft creative work for Home Depot's national training center in Carson, the Cathedral of Our Lady of Angels in Los Angeles, Pershing Square in Los Angeles, the Antelope Valley courthouse, The Hyatt Huntington Beach Resort & Spa, the Santa Ana Zoo, and Saint Sophia Greek Orthodox Church in Los Angeles.

From using seeded aggregates for the Los Angeles Metrolink project, to microtop in Hamasuka restaurant in Los Angeles, to thinset for a commercial exterior patio in the city, to microtop for the East Los Angeles public library, to creating intersections and sidewalks for Balboa Village in Balboa, to the driveway into Getty Village in Malibu, Sullivan Concrete Textures has left their mark on many projects—and lives—in Southern California.

Sullivan Concrete Textures
1111 Baker Street
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
rsullivan@sullivanconcretetextures.com
www.sullivanconcretetextures.com

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