FM Sheetmetal: Industrial Building Structural Engineering in Springfield, Oregon

Location: Springfield, Oregon
Client/Owner: FM Sheetmetal
Partners: Gary Simantel, Architect
Year: 2012
Size/scale: About 3,000 sq ft of office area; office block with a storage loft inside an existing metal building, plus a storage shed and an outside awning
JBE services: Structural design for tenant improvements in an existing metal building: office and storage-loft framing, shear walls, steel frame modification, storage shed and awning
Sector: Industrial

FM Sheetmetal industrial building structural engineering project, Eugene, Oregon — photo 1

The challenge

In 2012 FM Sheetmetal moved its sheet metal manufacturing into an existing metal industrial building in Springfield. The company needed new offices built inside the shell, with storage above them, and a production floor laid out for the way materials move through the shop. One steel post stood in the way of that flow, and the post had already been modified once before.

Project photos

What we did

We worked with Gary Simantel, Architect, on the structural side of the move. We designed the office framing inside the metal building for a storage loft above it, at 125 pounds per square foot, along with the shear walls that brace it, and the framing for the new façade and windows.

For the production floor, we checked the steel frame where the post was taken out: a 27-foot steel beam now spans the gap, with a new angle strut at the roof to keep it from buckling. We also designed a storage shed north of the building and a steel-framed outside awning on spread footings.

The result

FM Sheetmetal got the offices, storage and open production floor it needed inside a building that was already there. It’s a good example of the industrial building structural engineering in Springfield, Oregon that we do with local architects — making an existing building work for a new owner.