Chris Klemaske has joined Sundek in Arlington, Texas as Director of Commercial Development, where she will continue her role as an industry leader working with designers, architects and commercial developers on projects nationwide.
Chris began her construction career 32 years ago as an office administrator for Klemaske Brothers Concrete, Inc. She recognized early on that it was a male dominated industry at the time and decided she was interested in pursuing the restoration side of decorative concrete.
In 1990, Chris started her own decorative concrete restoration company called, Classic Concrete Care. Here she empowered other women to get involved in the industry and worked side by side in the field with her team cleaning and resealing decorative concrete finishes throughout the San Diego area. In 1995, Progressive Concrete came to Chris with an offer to become a project developer where she worked for 5 years and won numerous industry awards for design and perfection of installation.
For the last 19 years, Chris worked for T. B. Penick & Sons Innovative Concrete Services Group working directly with owners, developers and public officials, as well as designers, architects, and artists on the creation and execution of decorative concrete projects. Chris was instrumental in the design and execution of decorative concrete projects ranging from public art to structural, architectural and infrastructural works. She has contributed to the renovation of the Coney Island Boardwalk in New York; Numerous SeaWorld projects in San Diego, the Annenberg Visitors Center, the Myriad Botanical Gardens in Oklahoma City, and the Atlanta Botanical Gardens in Georgia, which was recognized as the WOW Award by the Decorative Concrete Council in 2018. Chris also worked on the San Diego International Airport which is the largest decorative concrete and terrazzo project ever installed by T. B. Penick Innovative Concrete Systems Group, a $20 million restoration of Terminal Two (T-2) consisting of 250,000 square feet of terrazzo, thousands of square feet of decorative concrete.
Along with her many career accomplishments, Chris is a champion for the architectural concrete industry and a sought-after industry spokesperson. In 2012, Chris served as the first woman director for the Decorative Concrete Council of the American Society of Concrete Contractors (ASCC). In 2013 Chris became the first woman president of the San Diego Chapter of the American Concrete Institute (ACI). She belongs to the National Association of Women in Construction and also sits on the ASCC Sustainability Committee, Public Relations Committee and served on the organization’s 2011 Strategic Planning Committee.
In 2016 Chris was featured on the cover of Concrete Construction Magazine where she was recognized as one of the Most Influential People in the Construction Industry.
Throughout her 32-year career in the industry, Chris has broken many barriers for women in the industry. She has been a tireless advocate for women in the building trades and a promoter of the decorative concrete industry as a structural form that melds together art, design, architectural integrity and functionality. SUNDEK is both excited and proud to add Chris to our growing and talented SUNDEK family.
