The American Society of Concrete Contractors Decorative Concrete Council celebrated winners for its Decorative Concrete Awards competition at the ASCC annual conference in Indianapolis in September.
Emil J. Gera Concrete Contractor of Weatherly, Pennsylvania, snagged the competition’s top honors by
winning the prestigious WOW! Award for a once-in-a-lifetime project where the client allowed him free rein to design and build. The project also won him first place in the under 5,000 square feet category for multiple applications in a job.
The DCC, a specialty council made up of contractors, manufacturers, and suppliers of decorative concrete products, has honored outstanding decorative concrete projects from around the world since 2009. A panel of industry professionals evaluates the submitted entries. The selection criteria include aesthetics, craftsmanship, functionality, creativity, and safety.
Awards are bestowed to contractors in a variety of categories, including everything from stamping, staining, and cementitious overlays to concrete artistry, architectural cast-in-place, and countertops.
WOW Award!
Mason residence, Drums, Pennsylvania
Emil J. Gera Concrete Contractor, Weatherly, Pennsylvania
Multiple Applications, Under 5,000 square feet, First Place
Mason residence, Drums, Pennsylvania
Emil J. Gera Concrete Contractor, Weatherly, Pennsylvania
A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Gera Concrete, Mason features a project where the company custom-designed and built nearly every surface. It incorporated every decorative and functional feature Gera could imagine—water, a fire pit, bar seating, a kitchen, a fireplace, seating walls, a live-edge farmhouse table, rustic plank flooring, lighting, and natural-gas lanterns. He stamped the fire pit area to highlight the wood-grain detailing while framing the fire feature. The company made the kitchen, table base, fire pit, seat walls, and piers in-house that feature vertical carving along with cast-in-place countertops. The 24-foot-tall fireplace was built as a conventional masonry structure and finished with vertical carving. Finally, the backlit water feature adds a magical nighttime focal point.
Concrete Artistry, Under 5,000 square feet, First Place
Art for Your Floors, Dallas, Texas
Epoxy Guys, Royse City, Texas
Located in Dallas’ vibrant Design District, this project merged functional flooring with fine art, delivering a high-performance epoxy system that met industrial standards while serving as a canvas for Michelangelo’s Hands of God. The artistic element elevated the difficulty — from surface prep to installation — ensuring flawless moisture control, substrate repair, and leveling to protect the centerpiece. The artwork was executed in layers using custom pigment blends, freehand detailing, and a carefully timed encapsulation process to preserve clarity and ensure long-term durability. Despite these complexities, the team combined
craftsmanship and creativity to produce a floor that not only serves a practical purpose but also tells a story.
Concrete Artistry, Under 5,000 square feet, Second Place
Perry’s Victory & International Peace Memorial, Put-In-Bay, Ohio
Select Concrete Arts, Lauderdale, Minnesota
Decorative Resinous Coatings, Under 5,000 square feet, First Place
Art for Your Floors, Dallas, Texas
Epoxy Guys, Royse City, Texas
Working in Dallas’s Design District, an area celebrated for artistic expression and creative innovation, presented logistical challenges. These included restricted site access, tight timelines, and the need to maintain optimal environmental conditions for material performance and adhesion. Despite these complexities, the Epoxy Guys team combined craftsmanship and creativity to produce an epoxy floor that not only serves a practical purpose but also tells a story. It wholeheartedly reflects the artistic heartbeat of Dallas and showcases what’s possible when design and construction are perfectly aligned.
Concrete Artistry, Over 5,000 square feet, First Place
Chimelong Spaceship No. 1, Fuxianwan, Hengqin New Area, Zhuhai, China
Bomanite International, Quezon City, Philippines, Metro Manila, 1105
Chimelong Spaceship Park Zhuhai, the world’s largest indoor park built by the Chimelong Group
and located within the Zhuhai Hengqin Chimelong International Ocean Resort, serves as the core
project of the resort’s Phase II expansion. The hardscape flooring — spanning 85,000 square
meters across the park’s perimeter, Science Popularization Hall, interior spaces, and children’s
areas — echoes the marine theme with design elements such as sunlight, beaches, multilevel
waves and aquatic animal motifs. Colorful outdoor exposed aggregate art flooring simulates water,
vegetation and sandy shores. Additional features include special glass aggregate surfaces, sand-finish textures, imitation-wave and crack patterns, and slip-resistant steps.
Concrete Artistry, Over 5,000 square feet, Second Place
University of San Diego – Wellness Center, San Diego
T.B. Penick & Sons, San Diego, California
Architectural Cast-in-Place – Stamped, Over 5,000 square feet, First Place
Sidan Gianyar Dam, Gianyar, Bali, Indonesia
Bomanite International, Quezon City, Philippines, Metro Manila, 1105
As part of a major national project involving the Sidan Dam in Gianyar, Bali, Indocrete enhanced the dam’s visual and functional landscape through its stamping system, offering a faster, more flexible alternative to traditional concrete blocks. The riprap area features an Ashlar pattern shaded in wave-like tones, while public access zones incorporate a Random Stone pattern in natural earth colors — choices carefully aligned with Balinese cultural aesthetics and the surrounding environment. Once fully operational, the dam will provide up to 1,750 liters of water per second, alleviating regional water scarcity and supporting future
tourism development that will help strengthen the local economy.
Architectural Cast-in-Place Concrete, Over 5,000 square feet, First Place
Alloy Santa Fe, Los Angeles
Largo Concrete, Tustin, California
In total, Largo Concrete placed more than 68,000 cubic yards of concrete for Alloy Santa Fe in LA’s Historic
Arts District. The development includes a seven-level, 105,000-square-foot commercial building, a 36-level
residential tower with 475 units and a 10-level office building above five levels of parking. Decorative board-formed, exposed architectural concrete appears throughout, highlighted most dramatically by the amoeba-shaped “Oculus” void at the roof deck. Each plank used to create these finishes was prepared, sealed, and used only once to ensure quality, then repurposed on site to reduce waste. Of the project’s 1,191 total columns, 90 have unique dimensions, including two irregular hexagonal columns.
Architectural Cast-in-Place Concrete, Over 5,000 square feet, Second Place
the NOW, West Hollywood, California
Largo Concrete, Tustin, California
Architectural Cast-in-Place – Stamped, Under 5,000 square feet, First Place
Legacy Builders – Rudolf Hangar, Whitsett, North Carolina
Carolina Bomanite, Charlotte, North Carolina
The Rudolf Hangar’s concrete portion totaled 3,666 square feet, with 2,791 square feet imprinted or textured across three main areas. The primary storage area consisted of a bonded topping slab reinforced with a composite rebar grid and colored with integral pigment. Slate skins created the surface texture, and a sawcut pattern served both structural and aesthetic purposes to control cracking. A wood-plank walkway was detailed with hand-applied nail holes, colored and imprinted before receiving additional color washes. The remaining 875-square-foot auxiliary area was upgraded at the owner’s request with an 800-grit grind and polish with densifier to elevate the overall finish.
Architectural Cast-in-Place – Stamped, Under 5,000 square feet, Second Place
Selman Estate Pool and Porch, Tawas City
Captivating Concrete, Tawas City, Michigan
Architectural Cast-in-Place – Special Finishes, Over 5,000 square feet, First Place
California Firefighter’s Memorial, Sacramento
Trademark Concrete Systems, West Sacramento, California
The California Firefighter’s Memorial in Capitol Park, Sacramento, is a powerful tribute honoring more than
1,500 firefighters who have died in the line of duty since 1850. Central to the space is an extensive decorative concrete scope featuring 10,000 square feet of 6-inch-thick running-bond flatwork made from a custom white concrete mix with imported white sands, all hand-mixed on site. Bronze inlays, integrated lighting, radiused concrete benches, circular pedestals, and template-sandblasted sign walls contribute to a thoughtful and cohesive design with all vertical concrete elements cast using the same white mix. In total, the project involved 350 cubic yards of decorative concrete.
Architectural Cast-in-Place – Special Finishes, Over 5,000 square feet, Second Place
University of San Diego – Wellness Center, San Diego
T.B. Penick & Sons, San Diego, California
Project Video, Over 5,000 square feet, First Place
California Firefighters’ Memorial, Sacramento
Trademark Concrete Systems, West Sacramento, California
With thousands gathering annually for the California Firefighters’ Memorial ceremony in Sacramento, a powerful tribute etched in decorative concrete was central to creating a space both reverent and enduring. The memorial features 10,000 square feet of 6-inch-thick running-bond flatwork produced with a custom white concrete mix. Bronze inlays and discreet lighting elements integrated into the flatwork enhance the visitors’ experience without detracting from the memorial’s solemn purpose. Additional features include radiused concrete benches, circular pedestals with bronze inlays, and sign walls with template-sand-blasted text. In total, the project involved 350 cubic yards of decorative concrete.
Countertops/Furniture/Firepits, Under 5,000 square feet, First Place
Chaney Reception Desk, Annapolis, Maryland
Hyde Concrete, Pasadena, Maryland
This 3,000-pound architectural precast concrete reception desk showcases artistic craftsmanship and
precision engineering for Chaney Enterprises’ corporate headquarters. It serves as a sophisticated focal point that reflects the company’s dedication to quality in ready-mix concrete and construction materials. The six-piece system was engineered with tight tolerances to ensure seamless assembly, with the front panel incorporating an integrated toe kick and an angular brake with custom notching for LED backlighting. Because of the desk’s weight and architectural constraints, field adjustments were impossible, making precise alignment essential for structural integrity. The finished piece highlights concrete’s architectural versatility, blending integrated lighting, custom wood cabinetry, and precision-engineered modularity to create a functional sculpture.
Architectural Cast-in-Place – Special Finishes, Under 5,000 square feet, First Place
101 Ocean, Santa Monica, California
Trademark Concrete Systems, West Sacramento, California
Originally built in 1963 and fully renovated in 1993, 101 Ocean is an iconic 10-story retro-modern building
that rises above the Pacific Coast Highway, offering unobstructed ocean views. It retained its signature style
and 59 residential units. In 2024, Trademark completely reimagined and renovated the property’s pool and spa areas, delivering two of the most technically demanding and visually striking decorative concrete finishes the company has ever produced. The project features alternating bright-white sand-finish paving — achieved using a surface retarder — and bright-white honed paving, created by hand-seeding white granite onto the surface and later exposing it with a planetary grinder to achieve a refined, polished texture.
Architectural Cast-in-Place – Special Finishes, Under 5,000 square feet, Second Place
Northern Pines, Vaughan
Bomanite Toronto – Vaughan, Canada, Ontario
Cementitious Overlays, Over 5,000 square feet, First Place
Lewisville Old Town Aquatic Center, Lewisville, Texas
Sundek Commercial Contracting/ADT Concrete Coatings, Grand Prairie, Texas
Sundek converted an outdoor Olympic-sized commercial pool into an interactive splash pad by installing a multicolored, custom-designed textured overlay system. The architect’s design layered new and existing concrete with playful colors and flowing, child-friendly aesthetics, requiring meticulous planning to execute curved forms, complex intersections, and multiple integrated patterns. Given the original pool’s irregular shape and the need to incorporate new concrete placements, joints, and splash pad features, the layout and installation demanded advanced craftsmanship to achieve seamless color transitions, long-term durability, and visual cohesion. Site compatibility added further challenges, including drainage retrofitting, slope correction, limited access, strict scheduling constraints, fluctuating weather, and a tight budget.
Cementitious Overlays, Over 5,000 square feet, Second Place
Andover 13th Street Splash Park, Andover, Kansas
Musselman & Hall Contractors, Kansas City, Missouri
Cementitious Overlays, Under 5,000 square feet, First Place
McMullen County Splash Pad, Tilden, Texas
Sundek of San Antonio/Sundek Commercial Contracting, San Antonio, Texas
The McMullen County Splash Pad, which involved 2,775 square feet of textured concrete, was completed within 21 days. The public recreational space incorporated multiple custom art elements and colors and was finished with a topcoat enhanced with an aluminum-oxide broadcast for added slip resistance. After the initial artwork and color layout were finished, the landscape architect issued significant design changes that required a full redesign, forcing the team to repeat the intricate masking, recoloring, and clear-coating process — essentially performing the detailed artistic installation twice. This effort demanded long hours in the extreme South Texas heat but was completed to meet the revised expectations.
Cementitious Overlays, Under 5,000 square feet, Second Place
Armstrong Park Splash Pad, Duncanville, Texas
Sundek Commercial Contracting/ATD Concrete Coatings, Grand Prairie, Texas
Decorative Resinous Coatings, Over 5,000 square feet, First Place
Epic Universe, Grand Helios Hotel Lobby Floor, Orlando, Florida
David Allen Co., Raleigh, North Carolina
Anchoring Celestial Park within Universal’s Epic Universe, the Grand Helios Hotel blends luxury with cosmic grandeur. Its public floors — spanning the lobby, hallways, retail area, and breakfast area — were envisioned as a flowing celestial map, alive with constellations, radiant arcs, and planetary bands. To bring this vision to life, a custom epoxy terrazzo system was installed across 10,100 square feet. The design incorporated three primary base colors and five additional tones, combining to create layered fields of movement. More than half of it was hand-seeded in a multicolor celestial pattern and embedded with brass strips to form glowing golden rings, orbits, and constellations.
Decorative Resinous Coatings, Over 5,000 square feet, Second Place
Epic Universe, Terra Luna Resort, Orlando, Florida
David Allen Construction, Raleigh, North Carolina
Polished Concrete & Overlays, Over 5,000 square feet, First Place
Epic Universe: Celestial Park, Orlando, Florida
David Allen Construction, Raleigh, North Carolina
Celestial Park, Epic Universe’s radiant core, guides guests through a cosmic garden of stars, fountains, and architectural wonders where David Allen Co. delivered 14,800 square feet of a high-performance, polishable overlay. Nearby, guests step onto a floor mirroring the constellation-filled ceiling, featuring two integral colors and a sparkling blend. Just steps away, a restaurant’s floor tells a story of movement toward the ocean, with a gradient layout of glass and mirror aggregates increasing in density from entrance to observation deck. Finally, the tavern features eight integral colors blended with various glass and complemented by brass inlays set into a preleveled slab. During construction, the area was protected with Skudo GP Mat and Skudo Board.
Polished Concrete & Overlays, Over 5,000 square feet, Second Place
Rushton Elementary, Mission, Kansas
Musselman & Hall Contractors, Kansas City, Missouri
Project Video, Under 5,000 square feet, First Place
Dairy Market Central Food Hall, Charlottesville, Virginia
Decorative Concrete of Virginia, Lynchburg, Virginia
The Dairy Market project pushed technical execution limits and logistical planning, quickly proving far more complex than it first appeared. The architectural specifications called for an intricate, marble-inspired design reminiscent of the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas, requiring the team to source a specialized stencil vendor far away. The 1,155-square-foot work area was housed inside a temporary tent in an active food court. The stencil work required flawless precision, with more than 20 sheets needing perfect alignment. Midway through, the contractor had to overnight five additional stencils to keep the project on schedule. What began as a two-week job became a true test of adaptability, problem-solving, and craftsmanship.
Project Video, Under 5,000 square feet, Second Place
McMullen County Splash Pad, Tilden, Texas
Sundek of San Antonio/Sundek Commercial Contracting, San Antonio, Texas
Stained & Dyes, Under 5,000 square feet, First Place
Dairy Market Central Food Hall, Charlottesville, Virginia
Decorative Concrete of Virginia, Lynchburg, Virginia
What began as a two-week job became a true test of adaptability, problem-solving, and craftsmanship. It
ultimately resulted in a flawless, sustainable polished floor with an exquisite design that brings detail and style to Dairy Market Central Food Hall. The architectural specifications called for an intricate, marble-inspired design reminiscent of the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas. To fulfill this requisite, the team contacted a specialized stencil vendor across the country, which ultimately doubled the anticipated material costs. The stencil work required flawless precision, with more than 20 sheets needing perfect alignment.
Vertical/Facades, Over 5,000 square feet, First Place
the NOW, West Hollywood, California
Largo Concrete, Tustin, California
Along the iconic Sunset Strip, the NOW is a 79,214-square-foot high-end commercial development defined by exposed architectural white concrete, with three levels of below-grade parking and four levels of leasable space. Over 15 months, Largo placed 7,250 cubic yards, completing the vertical façade project with 65,000 man-hours and zero recordable incidents. The most striking architectural element is a “louvered” wave effect on the second-level patio, where columns create a rhythmic façade. The first eight taper from almost 4-feet to 2-feet deep at the deck, while the next 17 are suspended stub columns that decrease in height as they move across the building, each connected to steel beams to create an undulating effect.
Multiple Applications, Over 5,000 square feet, First Place
Manor Country Club, Rockville, Maryland
Sundek of Washington, Chantilly, Virginia
Manor Country Club, a private club in Rockville, Maryland, celebrated its 100th anniversary with an amenity and exterior makeover. Previous sectional renovations had resulted in new concrete sitting directly beside old concrete, an uneven look the club wanted to avoid. Eventually, approval was granted to overlay 8,000 square feet of concrete with a multicolor, hand-stained finish, transforming the walkways and paved areas. Impressed with Sundek’s quality during installation, the project was expanded by another 15,000 square feet to include two outdoor pool areas. They had one stipulation: all work had to be completed before the pool’s May 15th opening. Both areas were completed on time and to the club’s full satisfaction.
Multiple Applications, Over 5,000 square feet, Second Place
Epic Universe, Grand Helios Hotel, Orlando, Florida
David Allen Co., Raleigh, North Carolina
Polished Concrete & Overlays, Under 5,000 square feet, First Place
Marjaree Mason Center, Fresno
Heritage Bomanite, Fresno, California
For the Marjaree Mason Center, Heritage Bomanite removed several large sections of existing cementitious terrazzo flooring and replaced 800 square feet with Bomanite Modena to create a seamless surface. Bomanite polished about 5,000 square feet of both old and new terrazzo. It poured an interior ramp to establish an ADA-compliant bathroom entry and installed a band along hallway perimeters to provide a smooth transition between old and new flooring. One of the project’s main highlights was the exceptional craftsmanship required to install new Bomanite Modena alongside very old terrazzo flooring, with zinc terrazzo strips aligning perfectly and the color complementing the original floor.
Polished Concrete & Overlays, Under 5,000 square feet, Second Place
Dairy Market Central Food Hall, Charlottesville, Virginia
Decorative Concrete of Virginia, Lynchburg, Virginia
