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Madame Tussauds Wax Museum, Hollywood

Photos by Slobodan Dimitrov
Story by Roy San Filippo

This month, Building Trades News visited members of Cement Masons Local 600 working at Madame Tussauds wax museum being constructed next to Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. The 44,274 sq.-ft. building will rise three stories above ground and will also include two levels of below-ground parking. The project is being built on the site of a former parking lot on the corner of Hollywood Blvd. and Orange Ave.

The concrete work has been going smoothly according to Patrick Lombard, Project Manager for Morely Builders. The biggest problem the project has encountered so far has been a large beehive that had to be removed.

Lombard said the biggest advantage of having union cement masons on the project is the quality of the work.

“The union cement masons are more conscientious; they take more pride in their work, and produce a better product,” he said.

On concrete pours, there are a variety of finishes that masons can apply, said Lomard. “On a parking structure we have a rougher finish, what we call a rotary finish, and the crew is responsible for making sure that the concrete is screened off correctly, and that all of the elevations are right. If we have any in-beds, making sure all of the inbeds are cleaned off. On the structural decks, everything is a hard trowel finish and we have to maintain an FF (Floor Flatness) of 35 which is a higher level of flatness,” explained Lombard.

In addition to concrete they are doing sacking and patching — repairing walls, columns, filling voids and other architectural repair work on the projects lower levels. The project has so far employed approximately 168 masons since the concrete work began in February.

While the trend in the industry has been for masons to become specialized, Local 600 business representative Fitzgerald Jacobs encourages members to be well rounded in their skill set to increase their value to contractors.

“You have guys who are specialized in sacking and patching, you have guys you are specialized in pouring and finishing, you have guys who are specialized in curb and gutters. You have some older guys who can do it all — they can set forms, read blue prints — do it all. But it has gotten more specialized and that’s not necessarily a good thing,” said Jacobs. “We always tell our guys that the more you know how to do, the more valuable you will be to a company. If you’re one dimensional, it becomes harder for you to stay busy. You’re pouring one day, the next day they might need you to repair a wall. Guys that are multifunctional like that can stay busy and stay employed.”

Jacobs said that Local 600 will be opening a new training center this October that will be providing journeyman training so that masons can improve and expand their skill sets and increase their value to contractors.