October 2018 - Western Specialty Contractors

Photo Credit: Dilip Vishwanat | SLBJ

Western Specialty Contractors is honored to announce that it has been selected for the St. Louis Business Journal’s Family Business Awards. The program recognizes family-owned companies that have successfully transitioned between generations and made an impact on the St. Louis community. The winners were honored at an awards event on Oct. 11.

Founded in 1915, St. Louis-based Western Specialty Contractors is currently led by CEO Benjamin Bishop, Jr., a third generation founding family member. A total of five family members, many fourth-generation, currently work at Western.

“We are so honored to receive an award that recognizes the value of family-owned businesses,” said Western CEO Ben “Butch” Bishop, Jr. “Family values have become almost cliché in recent years, but that's really what built Western Specialty Contractors. Of course, Western is dedicated to quality work and craftsmanship, but Western believes that you cannot achieve quality consistently unless you have people who can work as a team, with trust and respect for each other. Those values are truly the legacy of Western's founders Ben Many and George Bishop, Sr.”

Western’s history began in 1915 when the Ironite Company of Chicago invented a cost-saving product to waterproof concrete foundations from the inside called “Ironite” and needed contractors to successfully apply the product. St. Louis native Ben Many jumped on the opportunity and hired his brother-in-law George Bishop, Sr., also a St. Louis native, to be his partner after Bishop returned home from serving in World War I, and the Western Waterproofing Company of Missouri was born.

Following The Great Depression in 1929, Bishop worked to rebuild the struggling company after his partner moved to Chicago to pursue other opportunities. Through the decades, the Bishop family continued to grow the business and expand across the country, passing it down through the generations to eventually include branch locations in Arkansas, California, Colorado, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, Nebraska, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas and Washington. Western also expanded its services beyond just waterproofing to include masonry and concrete restoration, specialty roofing, disaster recovery and façade restoration, and changed its name to Western Specialty Contractors in 2015.

Today, Western is the largest concrete and masonry specialty contractor in the U.S., with over 30 branch offices and member companies nationwide, employing more than 1,250 people and executing more than 3,000 contracts each year.

Western has been quietly restoring some of America's most beloved buildings and structures for generations and takes great pride in its hands-on ability to get the job done right while creating lasting quality. Western has completed more than 300,000 projects over the course of its 103-year history, which include: Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, IL; Citadel Military College of South Carolina; Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, CA; Disney World's Epcot Center in Orlando, FL; Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C.; Martin Luther King Federal Building in Atlanta, GA; Chrysler Building in New York, NY; Museum of Science & Industry in Chicago, IL; Superdome in New Orleans, LA; Busch Stadium and Sportsman's Park in St. Louis, MO; Packard Automotive Plant in Detroit, MI; Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary in San Francisco, CA and Shrine of Saint Joseph in St. Louis, MO, to name just a few.

Western has faced it share of ups and downs over the course of its 103-years in business, which have included The Great Depression, two World Wars and multiple recessions, but throughout history, Western has proven that strong leadership, a willingness to adapt to changing times and hard-working, committed employees are the keys to succeeding through challenges.

“Learning to have patience was one of the most difficult skills to master. Learning from the ground up doesn’t come overnight and having been in business for 103 years you go through a lot of ups and downs,” said Bishop, Jr. “The principles and values put in place by the best generations have really made keeping the family culture the cornerstone of Western’s success. Your company is only as good as the people who work for you, and we have several fourth-generation family members presently employed by Western. Times change, processes change and people change. Change will always be the challenge all companies have to conquer in order to survive the generations.”

Monuments can be powerful, inspiring tributes to a person, place, tragedy or event. But when those treasured monuments start to show signs of wear-and-tear and weather damage and need to be restored to their original glory, or new monuments need the expertise of a specialty contractor to construct, customers call Western Specialty Contractors.

Over the course of its 100+ year history, Western Specialty Contractors has had the privilege of working on some of the nation’s most recognized and revered monuments and memorials, such as the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C.; The Gateway Arch in St. Louis, MO; Staten Island September 11^th Memorial in New York City, NY; World War II Veterans Memorial Globe in Springfield, IL; and the Lincoln Receiving Vault in Springfield, IL.

Whether the memorial or monument is made of stone, concrete or metal, they are all subject to weathering and damage over time. Through proper, routine maintenance, treasured monuments and memorials can be returned to their former glory and protected from future damage for visitors to cherish and enjoy for years to come.

“Each memorial project is unique and requires a special set of restoration skills and care. Repairing spalling and cracking concrete, installing appropriate waterproofing and treating rusting metal consistently will go a long way toward boosting a monument’s longevity. One aspect that remains consistent is Western’s dedication to respecting and maintaining the historical integrity and significance of the memorial or monument that has been entrusted to our care,” said Ben “Butch” Bishop, Jr., CEO of Western Specialty Contractors.

Staten Island September 11th Memorial in New York City, NY

In 2004, Western assisted in the design and installation of granite victim plaques for The Staten Island September 11th Memorial in New York City. The memorial, designed by architect Masayuki Sono and titled, “Postcards”, is constructed of two, 40-foot wing-like fiberglass walls, each with a 30-foot long window displaying the face profile and name of each victim.

Western was responsible for overseeing the selection and production of granite in Victoria, Brazil and Barrie, VT that would make up the 274 granite plaques. Each victim profile was designed by the architect and family members and downloaded to an electronic file that guided a waterjet machine over the granite to create each victim’s profile and name inscription. Western’s crew took great care in joining these special plaques to the memorial’s fiberglass walls. Over 3,000 family members and friends of the victims, city officials and a cast of devoted workers dedicated the memorial, which was awarded the New York Construction “Best of 2004 Annual Award.”

The Gateway Arch in St. Louis, MO

Western Specialty Contractors completed a project in 2017 to restore and waterproof the roof of the Museum of Westward Expansion located underground beneath the iconic Gateway Arch on the St. Louis Riverfront.

After the concrete roof was exposed, Western crews identified and repaired any leaks, then installed a 2-ply Laurenco modified bitumen sheet waterproofing covered with WR Meadows PC2 protection board. An electronic leak detection system followed by a permanent leak detection grid system were installed over the protection board.

The next phase of the project involved waterproofing the 42,000 SF horizontal lid and 37,000 SF vertical walls of the museum addition. Additional waterproofing of the north and south museum entrances and each Arch leg was also completed. The museum was largely operational during construction and a lot of the time Western crews were working over occupied space. Western sequenced the removal of existing roofing material so that they could remove, clean and install new roofing material daily to keep the museum dry during construction.

World War II Veterans Memorial Globe in Springfield, IL

In 2015, Western Specialty Contractors was tasked with repairing and re-coating the World War II Illinois Veterans Memorial Globe in Springfield’s historic Oak Ridge Cemetery. The exterior of the concrete Globe was showing signs of wear, with cracking and spalling concrete evident near the top of the memorial where a previously applied protective coating was flaking off.

Western crews removed damaged areas and repaired them with a polymer-modified concrete repair mortar. The shapes of the continents and the Globe's longitude and latitude lines were reformed and finished, under the watchful eye of the artist, to match the existing profile. Crews wet-abrasive blasted the Globe's surface to remove any remaining coating and provide profiling for the new coating.

After the surface had dried, Western applied a Sherwin Williams Loxon Concrete Primer and two coats of ConFlex XL Elastomeric Coating in flat white to match the original color.

Restoration of President Abraham Lincoln Receiving Vault in Springfield, IL

In 2015, Western Specialty Contractors restored the historic receiving vault in Springfield, IL that once held the bodies of assassinated President Abraham Lincoln and his son, Willie. Constructed in the 1860s, the stone and marble vault had major deterioration due to decades of water penetration.

Western crews repaired the vault’s walls using a system of low cement ratio mortar and brick infill in areas where the brick had deteriorated away from the wall. After infilling the voids in the walls, Western applied a layer of low cement ratio mortar to the entire wall surface to create a smooth surface to accept the bentonite sheet waterproofing. Western used stone fabrication methods to repair two serpentine retaining walls that extended outward away from the vault entrance.

The restoration project was completed on May 1, 2015 in time for commemoration and funeral reenactment ceremonies marking the 150^th anniversary of Lincoln’s funeral.

Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool – Washington, D.C.

The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was constructed in 1923 following the dedication of the Lincoln Memorial. The pool is over a third of a mile long, 167 feet wide and 30 inches deep in the center. In 2004, Western waterproofed the pool, which had begun to leak, and cut-out and re-caulked joints with urethane grout and silicone sealants.

Month: October 2018

Western Receives St. Louis Business Journal Family Business Award