2021 DCC Award Winner
6721 Columbia Gateway, Hyde Concrete

First Place: Polished Concrete & Overlays, Under 5,000 SF

6721 Columbia Gateway is a renovated, vibrant, multi-tenant office offering versatile social spaces. The 3,800 SF first floor features areas for conferencing, lounging, and gaming, and a community kitchen. The space required a durable, high-end finish to accommodate heavy foot traffic, without sacrificing design. The architects knew the existing concrete slab was not in the best condition, so they specified a polished concrete overlay. Hyde's scope of work included the first-floor main corridor, amenity space, lounge, and library.

The main challenges were installing the divider strip pattern and achieving the appropriate overlay aesthetics. The floor was divided down the middle in a flowing pattern with two finishes using PVC divider strips. The client wanted one overlay finish to look as though it had salt and pepper aggregate exposure, while the other needed a heavy aggregate exposure. This required sourcing a unique aggregate mixture with the correct stone size and color. The aggregate was incorporated into the overlay material to replicate the aesthetic of heavy aggregate exposure.

The second challenge was delaying the setting time of the concrete without compromising the water/cement ratio. To achieve this, citric acid was used to increase the initial fluidity of the concrete, giving finishers enough time to properly manipulate the concrete for consistent aggregate distribution. A steady hand and careful attention was necessary throughout the overlay finishing process.