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The 2024 MET Gala took place on May 6th in New York City at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The theme was the “Garden of Time” and celebrated the Costume Institute’s new exhibition, “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion.” This is the second time Albina has partnered with Kadan Productions, Inc. to create the centerpiece for the Met Gala’s Great Hall. In 2022, Albina bent the 1” pipe framework for the ribbons of a towering spiral staircase leading to the Statue of Liberty’s Eternal Flame of Enlightenment.

Vogue Magazine Article

Albina rolled, trimmed, drilled, spliced joints and welded offshoots for 12 lengths to make 8 assemblies out of 3” SCH40 6061-T6 ALUM and 35 lengths to make 8 assemblies out of 1½” SCH40 6061-T6 ALUM. All components were bent / fabricated to various configurations and radii.

Albina rolled, trimmed, coped and fabricated complete 8 lengths to make 16 additional branches out of 1½” SCH40 6061-T6 ALUM. All components were bent / fabricated to various configurations and radii.

Photo Credit : Met Gala, Vogue Magazine, Raul Avila & Kadan Productions

Albina bent 130,000#, 292 pieces, of various structural steel for the Brick Market, a mixed-use contemporary building in Portsmouth's historic district. Albina supplied various bent pieces of round tubing, wide flange, square and rectangular tubing, channel and angle for the building which features a public market on the first floor, three floors of office space and two levels of underground parking. 

For more information on the project and to see interior pictures visit JSA. Photo Credit: Rob Karosis

The Hyatt Regency, located atop the Bethesda Metro station and minutes from downtown D.C., features an award winning staircase the newly reimagined lobby space. The Ernest Wiemann Top Job Contest is a peer-judged competition created to honor outstanding work. The staircase, fabricated by Emerald Ironworks, took home a silver Ernest Wiemann Top Job Contest Award in the "Commercial-Stairs Complete" category. 

The interior stringer of this "floating" staircase has five different radii. The stringers had to be clad in wood and the steps in Italian marble. Most impressive, ot steel stringers installed to within 1/32" tolerances. Materials bent for the staircase included:

TS 18" X 6" X .625" WALL A500 GR B

               1 pc spiral bent the easy way to a 143 ft plan view radius

               1 pc spiral bent the easy way to a 14 ft plan view radius

               1 pc bent the easy way to a 17 ft radius

TS 16" X 4" X .625" WALL A500 GR B

               1 pc spiral bent the easy way to an 18 ft plan view radius

               1 pc bent the easy way to a 21 ft radius

               1 pc bent the easy way to an 18 ft radius

TS 10" X 6" X .500" WALL A500 GR B

               1 pc bent the easy way to a 28 ft radius

               1 pc bent the easy way to a 19 ft radius

TS 20" X 8" X .625" WALL A500 GR B

               2 pcs bent the hard way to an 18 ft radius

               1 pc bent the hard way to a 15 ft radius

               1 pc bent the hard way to a 16 ft radius

See the full list of Ernest Wiemann Top Job Contest Entries. 

See the full list of Ernest Wiemann Top Job Contest Winners.

Albina Co., Inc. has you covered from coast to coast! We are a family owned, local business servicing the entire nation one bend at a time! We are constantly shipping out jobs to middle America and the East Coast. Worried about freight from our shop to yours? With the amount of jobs we are doing across the country, there are many opportunities to bundle up jobs to make freight more affordable. See our most recent You Tube Video to get a visual of our national coverage! 

Click here for a list of projects referenced in the video and for photo credits. 

The American Institute of Steel Construction and the National Steel Bridge Alliance are recognizing eight bridges with 2024 Prize Bridge Awards—the structural steel industry’s highest design honor for bridges.

Albina bent 127,000# of tube steel for the South Bayfront Pedestrian Bridge and Horton Landing Park, Emeryville, California, a Merit Award Winner.

Albina induction bent 15 lengths of TS 16” X 16” X .625” WALL A1085 A513 to 149 ft and 289 ft radii and 9 lengths of TS 20” X 12” X .625” WALL A1085 A513 the easy way to 290 ft and 310 ft radii. Photo credit: Tom Loomis

You can see the full list of winners at aisc.org

We had the pleasure of staying at The Arizona Biltmore (A Waldorf Astoria Resort) recently and got to experience the new Paradise Waterslides firsthand. Equally as impressive as the slides themselves is the spiral staircase used to acend to the top of the slides. Materials Albina bent for this project included tube steel, various sizes and widths of pipe and round tube as well as several pieces of angel and channel. Next Level Steel was the fabricator on the project.

A full list of bent materials includes:

TS 12" X 3" X .375" WALL A500 GR B

22 pcs spiral bent the easy way.  11 pcs bent to a 7’-4” outside plan view radius and 11 pcs bent to a 11’-0” Inside plan view radius.  All to AESS standards.

35 pcs bent the easy way (flat).  17 pcs bent to a 7’-1” inside radius and 18 pcs bent to a 11’-0” Inside radius.  All to AESS standards.

3" OD X .250" WALL A500 GR. B

112 pcs spiral bent to various radii and configurations all to AESS standards.

2½" OD X .188" WALL A500 GR B

6 pcs spiral bent to various radii and configurations all to AESS standards.

60 pcs bent (flat) to 3’-11” up to 5’-1” radii.

1¼" SCH40 A500B UNCOATED

25 pcs spiral bent to various radii (7’-5” up to 10’-10”) and configurations all to AESS standards.

12 pcs bent (flat) to 7’-5” up to 10’-10” radii.

1½" SCH40 A500B UNCOATED

106 pcs spiral bent to various radii (7’-2” up to 11’-1”) and configurations all to AESS standards.

73 pcs bent (flat) to 7’-2” up to 11’-1” radii.

C4 X 5.4# A36

51 pcs bent (flat) the hard way to various radii and configurations

2" X 2" X ¼" ANGLE A36

260 pcs rolled – some leg-in and some leg-out.  To various radii and configurations.

3" X 3" X 3/8" ANGLE A36

1 pc rolled leg-out to a 7’-7” radius

1 pc rolled leg-in to a 11’-0” radius

3" X 3" X ½" ANGLE A36

47 pcs rolled – some leg-in and some leg-out.  To various radii and configurations.

4" X 3" X ½" ANGLE A36

1 pc rolled leg-in to a 11’-0” radius

Albina recently rolled various material for the eagle feather-inspired roof at the American Indian Hall at Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana. ThinkOne Construction Management designed a barrel-vaulted, curved, standing beam roof in the shape and color of an eagle feather. Metal roofing was specified to ensure durability and to create a non-penetrating attachment point for solar panels. The project was featured on page 37 of the October/November Issue of Metal Architecture. 

TS 14" X 4" X .375" WALL A500 GR B-2 pcs rolled the easy way to a 27’ -8” radius

6" X 6" X 5/16" ANGLE A36-7 pcs rolled leg out to a 92’-0” radius

4" X 4" X ½" ANGLE A36-2 pcs rolled leg out to a 107’-3” radius

Photo Credit: Jacob Teats

We also rolled the materials for the spiral staircase on this project.

MC12 X 10.6# A36

5 pcs rolled flanges out to a 67’-0” radius

4 pcs spiral rolled flanges out to a 67’-0” radius

5 pcs rolled flanges in to radii ranging from 57’-5” - 67’-5” radius

4 pcs spiral rolled flanges in to a 63’-0” radius

2" X 2" X ¼" ANGLE A36

1 pc rolled leg out to a 67’-5” radius

1 pc rolled leg in to a 67’-10” radius

Photo Credit: Jacob Teats

Albina Co., Inc. has the capability to bend almost any material that is mill produced.  Every material has its own unique shape and is also uniquely dimensioned.  We are frequently asked questions related to material dimensioning and sizing.  The focus of this blog will be beams, specifically wide flange and I-Beam “S shapes”.

1. How do you measure beams?
2. How is the sizing of steel beams determined?
3. How do you measure the width of a beam?
4. How do you measure the depth of a beam?
5. What is the difference between the web and the flange of a beam?

See the AISC Structural Steel Dimensioning Tool for detailing dimensions of all rolled sections. 

Beams come in a variety of shapes and sizes, the most common beams produced are Wide Flange and I-Beam “S shapes”.  These two materials are shaped differently but have most of the same dimensioning characteristics.

Flanges vs. Web.  Every beam will have two flanges and one web.  The flanges make-up the outside faces of the beam, while the web is the material connecting the two flanges.

The width of a beam is the dimension / length of the flange.

The depth of a beam is the outside-to-outside dimension / distance between the flanges. 

Web thickness is the thickness of material of the Web material.

Flange thickness is the thickness of material of the Flange material.

The biggest difference between I-Beam and Wide Flange is the flange thickness.  Wide Flange has a consistent flange thickness, while I-Beam does not have a consistent flange thickness, because the thickness varies over the length of the flange.  The flange thickness is thicker the closer it gets to the web.

Albina recently rolled 36 pieces of Tube Steel 6” X 6” X .375” WALL A500 GR C to AESS standards at radii ranging from 3’-9” – 24’-4” for the United States Air Force Academy Visitors Center. The visitors center is expected to open early 2024 and the 32,000 square-foot facility will include storytelling and high-tech exhibits reflecting the Air Force and Space Force missions as well as illustrating a day in the life of a cadet at the Academy.  The Visitors Center is viewed as more than a public entrance to the Academy, it is also a gateway to Colorado Springs. Six years in the making, the new area will also feature a hotel, retail space and office space. 

Below are a few videos with more details on the project. 

You Tube Video

Colorado Springs Local News Channel KKTV

They are too cool to be square! 

Albina recently rolled some pretty cool circles! We rolled the following materials:

Plate 2” THICK X 45¾” WIDE T304 S/S. Rolled to a full circle at a 41.5” outside diameter.
Plate 2½” THICK X 50½” WIDE T304 S/S. Rolled to a full circle at a 58.5” outside diameter.

For future reference, our plate rolls have the following capacities:

*Plate: 2-1/2" plate up to 10'0" in width
*Flat Bar the Easy Way: Any thickness and size thru 4" x 22"
*section is dependent on thickness to width