For twenty years, Hyde Concrete has been turning concrete into something people remember. Founded in 2005 by Greg Hyde Hryniewicz and based in Pasadena, Maryland, this veteran-owned studio designs and fabricates decorative and architectural concrete for homes and businesses across the Mid-Atlantic – Maryland, Washington DC, Northern Virginia, and Delaware. Along the way they have earned more than 25 international awards and a reputation for treating concrete as a material with no limits.
Walk through their portfolio and the range is striking. Precast bars and countertops, modular outdoor kitchens, sculptural sinks and vanities, hearths and fireplaces, benches, stair treads, wall caps – each piece built to be both useful and beautiful. Hyde works shoulder to shoulder with architects, designers, and general contractors, and the through-line is always the same: solve the problem in front of you, then make it look effortless.
Few projects show that better than the bar they crafted for Mi Vida, in Washington DC’s Penn Quarter. The brief called for an organic shape with an intricate edge and a textured surface, and Hyde delivered a 156-square-foot precast GFRC bar with a lowered, ADA-compliant section and recessed drink rails. Textured veining runs across the surface, honed and sealed to feel like an arroyo – a dry river washout.
The standout is the edge: four inches tall, running more than 60 feet of customer-facing counter, with the profile crossing every joint so cleanly you would never know where one casting ends and the next begins. The work earned First Place for Countertops at the 2024 Decorative Concrete Council International Awards, and Dwell magazine singled the bar out as a centerpiece of the restaurant’s design.
A restaurant bar is about as demanding a test as a concrete surface can face – spills, citrus, heat, and sixty feet of elbows night after night. So we were glad to learn that Hyde sealed the Mi Vida bar with Omega, our professional-grade sealer. Omega is built for exactly this kind of punishment, with strong stain, scratch, and heat resistance and no ongoing maintenance, which is why so many working shops reach for it on their highest-profile jobs.
Our connection to Hyde runs through the work itself. Jeff Girard has crossed paths with Greg several times over the years at World of Concrete in Las Vegas, swapping notes the way people who love this material tend to do. It is a quiet kind of relationship, but a real one – and seeing Omega on an award-winning bar like Mi Vida is the best kind of proof that good materials and good craftsmanship belong together.
There is a generosity to how Hyde works, too. The team casts concrete oyster reef balls to help restore the Chesapeake Bay, raises money to fight multiple sclerosis, and plunges into the bay each January for the Special Olympics. It is the same instinct that shows up in their concrete: build something that lasts, and leave the place around you a little better for it.
We can not wait to see what Hyde Concrete creates next.
See more of their work at hydeconcrete.com and follow them on Instagram @hydeconcrete.