The August Issue of Modern Steel featured an article titled “What’s Cool In Steel” and one project highlighted was the Basher Pedestrian Bridge at the San Diego Zoo (pages 23-26). Albina Co., Inc. was the bender/roller on this project. Materials rolled for this project included 24 lengths, each measuring 48 feet long, of 16” OD X .0625” wall tubing rolled to various radii including a 20 foot radius, a 50 foot radius and a 350 foot radius. Check out the pictures below and read the article for more detailed information on the fascinating curved steel bridge.
“The Spheres” in Seattle, Washington have been all the buzz lately! “The Spheres” were featured in the May 2019 Edition of Modern Steel Magazine as the buildings were awarded the AISC’s IDEAS2 Presidential Award for Excellence in Fabrication! Just this last week, our VP of Sales, Brad Lund, was able to attend the award presentation ceremony at “The Spheres” in Seattle and we were awarded a plaque to display in our office. See below for some AMAZING pictures!
Albina Co., Inc. was the steel bender/roller for the Curved Steel Bio-Sphere buildings in Seattle, WA. Albina bent 750,000# and 1,050 pieces rectangular tube steel bent the easy way and a portion bent off-axis. Almost 8 miles of welding work and grinding was avoided because of Albina’s ability to bend a portion of the project. Almost NO correction was needed during fabrication or erection as the bends fit to the fixtures within 1/32nd of an inch! Albina Co., Inc. also bent the handrails and spiral staircase for the interior of the buildings.
Interior Shot of the “webs” used to help create “The Spheres”Brad Lund receiving the AISC IDEAS2 Award for Presidential Excellence in FabricationCurved Steel Handrail 2nd floor of “The Spheres”A close up of the “webs” used to help create “The Spheres”Curved Steel Handrails and Spiral Staircases on the interior of “The Spheres”Curved Steel Spiral Staircase at “The Spheres” (looking down) Curved Steel Spiral Staircase at “The Spheres” (from ground level)
Check out the August Issue of Modern Steel for “What’s Cool In Steel” Albina was the bender/roller on two of the featured projects including the Basher Pedestrian Bridge at the San Diego Zoo (pages 23-26) and a Des Moines sculpture titled “A Monumental Journey” by artist Kerry James Marshall (pages 30-31). We are working on securing some final install pictures of each of these projects! Stay tuned!
The last few years have been sensational for Albina Co., Inc. We have seen a great deal of change in our industry and have been fortunate to recognize growth in our capabilities, capacity and in both our shop and office team members. We are excited to introduce the newest member of our Estimating / Project Management team, Joseph (Joe) Daniels. Joe is joining Aaron Hughes, Mark King, Brad Lund, Stuart Hasman and Brian Smith in Albina’s Sales department. Joe has many years of experience in the steel and fabrication industry and has worked in Albina’s shop, as an Ironworker, since July 2014. Joe has developed an outstanding reputation at Albina and will be a welcomed addition to our outstanding sales and estimating team. Joe possesses a comprehensive work ethic and will service Albina’s customers just as you have grown accustomed to from the other members of our team. We are confident Joe’s commitment to quality and integrity will make him a valuable resource as our company and your business continue to grow. You can contact Joe or any of our other existing sales staff with your estimating and technical needs at 503-692-6010. Joe’s email is jdaniels@albinaco.com. Thank you for your continued support.
Check out the two-page feature article on Albina Co., Inc. in the May Southwest Edition of A2Z Manufacturing Magazine. We had such a great time working with Linda and Kim putting the article together.
The article highlights several projects that we have participated in specifically in the states of Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico. Our company history, philosophy and future goals are also touched on in the piece.
We just returned from the happiest place on Earth (Disney World) and while we should be rested after 9 days of vacation, we are exhausted!!! Disney, just like everything else in our lives, involved strategic planning almost six months in advance just to ensure we could have a hot meal and ride the most popular rides. And even with all that planning and preparation, Jaime and I found ourselves constantly evaluating the efficiencies of the parks, the bottlenecks we faced, and how we thought Disney could improve the experience of park-goers. Don’t get me wrong, we had great family time, and Disney is one of the most successful companies around, but I think the lesson we took away from the trip is that even if we think we have things all figured out and are doing things the way we think you want them done, we can’t rest on our laurels and we need to be constantly evaluating how we can make your experience in doing business with us an enjoyable (and dare I say “magical”) one.
On our trip, we were constantly on a roller coaster, jumping from one ride to the next, never a dull moment. That is the same feeling we have about how the spring is shaping up here at Albina Co. We have so many great and interesting projects going on right now! We are rockin’ & rollin’ on so many different types of material! So many industries…agricultural, structural, aerospace, mining, food processing, and so much more! Below are just a few projects we shipped out recently!
Albina Co., Inc. is drawing a lot of attention locally and nationwide as we celebrate 80 years in the steel bending business. Our story is one of the unique ones as we span three generations of Smith owners! Check out the article on the Portland Business Tribune website.
We recently joined the USFA (Utah Steel Fabricators Association) to assist in the effort to support and improve the steel fabrication industry in Utah. USFA members are comprised of steel distributors, steel processors, steel fabricators, and providers of many products and services related to metal fabrication. This is an exciting opportunity to network with other folks in the steel industry and to help strengthen the educational core in Utah’s steel industry.
Albina provided 109,000# of bent steel for the Eli Lilly San Diego Biotech Center in La Jolla, CA. Eli Lilly doubled the size of its research facility to 300,000 square feet during this project.
With every New Year comes excitement about the anticipation of what is to come, but also a bit of caution as to what may lie ahead. That is why we took two New Year’s pictures this year as a family! We must stick to what we know to keep our family and business strong, but we must also have the fortitude to take a leap when a project or challenge comes our way. The uncertain economic and social times we live in pose challenges each and every day, but I am confident in the companies we partner with, the people we work with, and the projects we invest in. Maintaining a strong steel industry, just like raising a strong family, is a collaborative effort. All hands on deck! Lets work together to get through these uncertain times and come out stronger on the other end!
And with every New Year comes reflection about the year prior. 2018 was one for the record books as we worked on many exciting curved steel projects. Albina was fortunate to team up with some great fabricators on a massive project in California this last year. The project (to be named at a later date) consisted of 100’s of trucks, thousands of pieces and millions of pounds of bent steel. This was the largest project Albina has processed to date and we look forward to working on more projects that have this level of complexity and excitement in 2019, the 80th Anniversary of our company!! Cheers to 80 Years!
