The formboards used to build the wall in the photo below left a natural wood grain, just like the original historic formboards did about 50 to 100 years ago.
Concrete is poured into a form in a wet consistency similar to a slushy wet mud. The concrete hardens quickly and within a few days to about a month the country forms can be removed from the new concrete construction.
In modern times we have several materials we use to build our form and walls, including: plywood, melamine veneers, PVC, and more. But in the old days, in historic construction wood planks were used.
This building wall, shown above was built to resemble the Historic style and methods of construction, but in reality there is a sauna to that indicates the Historic effect is actually artificial and not actually historic:
1. If you look very closely you can see there are round spots in the concrete of the wall face that are approximately the size of a quarter or half dollar, about 1.25 inches in diameter. These spots look like a snap ties used in modern forms, not used in historic forms. The snap ties have a plastic collar that prevents the form sides from being squished together.
2. The building above the base wall shown is a high rise building. It’s very unlikely that historic foundation would have been built to the standards required for a modern high rise building.
GL Barnhart Construction ...The Blog 