Chico State Students Provide Demonstration of Alcatraz Work at ASCC Conference

The Chico State CIM Summer Field School was represented at the American Society of Concrete Contractor’s National Conference in Salt Lake City at the Decorative Concrete Council’s outdoor display area by CIM Students and Alcatraz Interns Trevor Prater and Bryan James. Shellie Rigsby of Acanthus, Inc., a decorative concrete staining firm in Dallas, and Clark Branam of Scofield served as the student advisors for the project and were the leaders of the decorative aspects of the Field School during summer 2010. In their demonstration, Prater and James created a replica of a staircase they repaired on Alcatraz Island and demonstrated various standard and creative techniques they used on Alcatraz to match the colors and textures of 100-year old, bay-weathered concrete. By preparing the entire demonstration on site the students were able to create a live demonstration throughout the 3-day conference. The repair demonstration strongly correlated with the sustainable theme of ASCC’s Decorative Concrete Council display area, as the nature of both historic concrete repair and the Alcatraz internship requires a focus on concrete durability and restoration rather than demolition by selectively repairing only problem areas and minimizing waste.


The 10-week long Chico State CIM Summer Field School served as an internship for five Chico State CIM students, completing over 2000 hours of cumulative work on the infamous prison grounds and highlighting many unique features the Bachelor of Science Degree encompasses. It was an industry-supported pilot project designed to engage CIM students in managing and performing the evaluation, estimating, repair, and preservation of concrete structures while working outside of the technical parameters of a classroom. The Field School is planned to continue in future summers providing the opportunity for many more CIM students to gain valuable field experience.