Like any commercial building, the Charlotte Convention Center has a set of emergency exits that lead to the outside. However, the Convention Center had a unique problem in that its doors led towards the tracks for the Charlotte Light Rail.
A decade ago, the Convention Center wanted to give the concrete between the tracks a treatment that would discourage pedestrians from thinking the area was a sidewalk and lingering in the danger zone. So the project’s Charlotte-based architect, The FWA Group, got in touch with John Fletcher, president of Charlotte-based Carolina Bomanite Corp.
His solution was to stamp the 1,400-square-foot area with a cookie-cutter style Bomanite stamp in a River Stone design. The grooves between the stones are quite large (more than 1 1/2 inches deep by 3/4 inch wide), making them a challenge to walk on for the casual. The rock pattern also helps keep the concrete from looking like a sidewalk.
The project was finished in November 2003. “It looks good where it’s at,” Fletcher says. “It was one of those cases where you install it for a utilitarian purpose, yet it fits very well.”
