 Tarlton received a 2008 Quality Concrete Award from the Concrete Council of St. Louis for the firm’s work as a subcontractor on the Government Hill project in Forest Park. The $4 million upgrade to this treasured St. Louis site began in early 2007 and was officially unveiled in May 2008. The project was part of a multi-phase master plan by the City of St. Louis Department of Parks, Recreation and Forestry and Forest Park Forever to renovate the historic park.
Dating to the 1904 World’s Fair, Government Hill was designed as a large-scale formal landscape reflecting the “City Beautiful” movement at the turn of the 19th Century, and has been a popular setting for major civic and corporate special events. After decades of wear and erosion, however, the site’s handsome stairways (built in 1914), pools, cascades and paths were crumbling, while the hill’s 1930s-era “Electric Fountain” had lost most of the features that had made it a reputed marvel of technology. The site no longer did justice to the classically inspired World’s Fair Pavilion, built in 1909 and renovated in 1998, at the hill’s zenith, park officials said.
To renovate Government Hill without abandoning its historic design, existing concrete structures were removed and replaced. Construction manager BSI Constructors of St. Louis awarded the vertical and architectural concrete work to Tarlton’s Concrete Group based on its low competitive bid. Tarlton installed upper and lower water fountain basin walls with six cascade steps dropping a total of 14 feet, along with footings and walls for three sets of paired steps rising from the lower basin to the World’s Fair Pavilion, an elevation change of 54 feet. The team also performed the vertical concrete work in the fountains and reflecting pools, as well as installing water stops to combat leakage in the expansive lower water basin, which measures 130 feet long and 70 feet wide.
Tarlton placed approximately 1,000 cubic yards of concrete at Government Hill, usingseveral techniques and special concrete forms to achieve the desired integrity and appearance in specific areas. HOK Planning Group was project engineer. Hydro Dramatics created the fountains, and Raineri Building Material Inc. supplied ready mix.
Also receiving a Quality Concrete Award was the 300-car South Campus Parking Garage project at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, submitted by project architect Parsons Brinckerhoff. Tarlton was general contractor on the $5.6 million project, which serves the Nursing Administration Building and a large residence hall.
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