Contractor Goes Coast-to-Coast For SteelMaster Structures

For more than 40 years, Shiver Construction Company has been a leader in commercial construction. Now, the company has branched out from the southwestern region and takes their business coast to coast.

In 2011, Jake Shiver was reintroduced to the arch style building when he worked on his first project with SteelMaster–a nuclear controlled administrative site for the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Los Alamos chose to enclose their excavation sites with metal Quonset huts to keep contamination from the reaching the air as they worked to excavate Material Disposal Area B (MDA-B). The buildings provided 100 percent usable space on the interior, leaving plenty of room for excavation equipment.

“It was a really difficult job, it was complex. It was the biggest single sale SteelMaster’s ever done.” said SteelMaster’s Senior Design Specialist William Swafford. “[Jake] came away from that job excited about the project. He came away wanting some more work.”

Following the Los Alamos project, Shiver Construction Company expanded their business model to include arch style buildings. Since then, Shiver has worked with SteelMaster on several complex, large scale projects.

“Everything has been pretty standardized, so there’s not going to be much deviation from one to next even though the designs are different,” Jake Shiver said. “We enjoy doing them.”

He says the customer service is one of the best parts of working with SteelMaster Buildings.

“They’re doing their job, answering the technical questions, they’re not just selling a building and saying ‘Not my problem,’” Shiver said. “Knowing and working with SteelMaster, I know that the ability to turn that project over, for us, is going to be assisted by the manufacturer. That’s gold–you can’t beat that with anybody else.”

Shiver Construction Company has also worked with SteelMaster on structures for Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and Aker Shipyard, as well as several overseas projects.

In addition to assembling SteelMaster’s prefabricated arches, the company also completes structural steel work.

One project that stands out to Shiver is the Austin Animal Center in Texas.  Multiple roof systems complete the buildings that comprise the center. They are eco-friendly and helped the Austin Animal Center earn their LEED certification.

“It was unique because the arch is integrated with another structural system there. At the end of the day, I look back at that time in my life and in our company’s operations and they were good times,” Shiver said.

Although the project was challenging, Shiver is pleased with the end result.

“I’ve been to Austin numerous times and I’m proud to go there and say ‘I did that. I built that.’”

Shiver Construction Company also worked with SteelMaster on a project at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island in Washington. The buildings are used to store F-18 aircraft.