Construction Today 2018 - Volume 16, Issue 3 - 37
CHIEF Buildings designs and manufactures buildings for about 900 projects per year. station at Martha's Vineyard Airport, Mass. "That building was also complex, but in a different way," Shelton says. "There were eight separate buildings, as we designed it, that fit together into one seamless structure." Completed last year, the new two-story building takes up roughly 15,000 square feet and required about 128 tons of steel. "We supplied all the metal framing, which is not always common on projects like this," he adds. "Many times light gauge framing is used for these feature laden designs, but it's all framed by our steel package." The building's second floor consists of 3,600 square feet of mezzanine. Although the project required considerably less steel than the hangars at the Colorado Springs Airport, it was challenging in other ways. "Since it's in New England, it had to have a New England aesthetic," Shelton says. "Exhibiting some obvious Arts and Crafts (movement of 1880-1920) influence, it has steep roofs, wood shingle siding, covered patios, canopies and complex roof lines with lots of hips, valleys and dormers." Also, since the fire station is on an island, the project presented some logistical challenges. It required that all equipment and materials be shipped over water. "Everything had to be ferried over," Shelton explains. "The machines, equipment, materials and even the crew. I would say that project, based on complexity and the job site location, provided some unique challenges. Not every one of our builders would tackle a job like that." CHIEF Buildings relies on its builders to be the direct link to its finished products. The company has roughly 400 partnerships with independent authorized builders throughout the United States. For the Martha's Vineyard project, CHIEF Buildings relied on Hampton Falls, N.H.-based MMS Northeast Inc. "We value our builder network and that's probably why some of our Builders have been with us since the beginning," Shelton says. Family-Owned "What separates us from the competition is that we are a family-owned, privately held company and yet we're big enough to be among the top five metal building manufacturers in the U.S.," Shelton says. "Our biggest competitors are publicly traded corporations with multiple competing brands. We offer something different." CHIEF Buildings is a division of Chief Industries Inc., a multi-faceted company with corporate offices in Grand Island, Neb. Founded in 1954 as a small construction company, it started manufacturing its own buildings in 1966. We are still owned by the same family. As one of CHIEF Industries' largest « divisions, CHIEF Buildings' products include custom buildings, roof systems, wall products and a variety of smart solutions. For example, CHIEF Buildings offers an industry exclusive electro-coat primer system. This state-of-the-art primer process protects the structures from corrosion and abrasion with unsurpassed coverage and durability. When it comes to growth, the company favors the organic method. "We don't plan on growing just for the sake of gaining market share," Shelton says. "We want to grow in a controlled and stable way. We will continue to provide a quality product and exceptional service. We wouldn't want to compromise on either of those, so we're going to grow organically." CHIEF Buildings is a proud member of the Metal Building Manufacturers Association (MBMA). In 2018, the company's president and general manager, Dave Koubek, was selected to chair the MBMA's board of directors. The company also is a member of the Metal Building Contractors and Erectors Association (MBCEA). "We worked closely with the MBCEA to get them started down a road towards a new universal accreditation program for builders," Shelton says. "Only a few metal building contractors have attained this accreditation so far, but the [International Accreditation Service] AC478 program will help raise the bar for the putin-place quality within our industry." 37 VOLUME 16, ISSUE 3 CONSTRUCTION-TODAY.COM