Every USN carrier since the beginning of forever has had a (emergency) conn right forward, underneath the forward edge of the flight deck. For whatever that's worth.
Oh, that's right. I've read that somewhere. I've never seen any photo's of that though (except for he three holes in the forward bow). But, as you said, they have it underneath the forward edge of the flightdeck. On the CVX concept they are right on the edge of the flight deck, meaning the top of the flightdeck is also the roof of the secondary bridge. I don't think that would be very safe...