CUSTOM ROCK HISTORY
More Than 50 Years Of Experience And Reinvention
The origins of Custom Rock go back to 1971. The company started as a stamped concrete (flat or horizontal concrete) contractor. We made concrete look like real stone and caught the attention of the architects designing the Minnesota Zoo in 1976.
We were asked to find a way to make the new animal exhibits look like realistic natural environments. It was a big leap from flat concrete to working with GFRC (glass fiber reinforced concrete). After this project Custom Rock became popular and began doing theming projects all over the country - casinos in Las Vegas, hotels and resorts, Cabela's and other sporting goods stores. In the mid-80s, Custom Rock was working on the the municipal aquarium in Duluth Minnesota and a DOT designer happened to see the finished product and asked us if a similar technique could be used on bridges and soundwalls to create a realistic stone finish.
That is the moment that Custom Rock made its first formliners for the Minnesota DOT. The thread that runs through all these iterations of the company is the pursuit of realism in our work. Custom Rock has always focused on creating the most realistic rock textures. The name "Custom Rock" came about as a simple way to express what we did.
