Concrete tilt-up building - Model Railroader Magazine

Precast concrete wall panels appeared in the late 1950s and grew slowly in use during the 1960s.  Generally in the 1960s they were cast at the construction site and tilted up, and were not common because they were expensive, and used primarily for assembly buildings (churches, schools, universities, concert halls, etc.) to provide aesthetic appearance while still meeting fire and structural codes.  Precast wall panels enabled fancy exposed aggregate or textured surfaces, which are very difficult to achieve with cast-in-place vertical forms. 

In the 1970s there was sufficient market acceptance -- and costs of labor for competing methods had priced them out of the picture -- for concrete wall panels to become widespread for industrial and warehouse structures.  My father's firm designed and constructed the first industrial structure using all precast walls and roof in Denver in 1973, and subsequently built several million square feet of light industrial/warehouse space using 100% precast, prestressed, for the structure above ground level.

Until the late 1960s, you would not see much, if any, precast concrete industrial buildings, and then you would find it only in certain regions of the U.S.  Reinforced masonry or cast-in-place concrete was vastly more common at that time.  Different regions of the U.S. adopt different construction methods and materials at different times, depending on variations in codes, costs, culture, tradition, and experience.  Some areas of the U.S. have gone whole-hog for concrete buildings whereas in other areas concrete is viewed as declasse.  Generally areas of the U.S. that have been settled longer are more wedded to their traditional materials and methods than areas where everyone is a newcomer and there is no tradition. 

RWM