Columbia Building Products
Longevity and ingenuity
The key to long life is to do it well at first and to keep on getting
better
Columbia Building Products has a long history of accomplishment, with
a flair for innovation as well.
"My father, D.L. Bennett, started Columbia Building Products in
1957," says company president Brian Bennett, "and it has always
been at this location, starting in an old barn." The current building
was put up in 1961, and, as the business grew, there have been seven additions
to that.
The firm now has a 60,000-sf plant and warehouse. "All of the kids
grew up in the business, from shop work to driving the truck," says
Bennett. Upon his father's retirement, he became president, brother Richard
taking the role of vice president and brother Gregory of corporate secretary.
"Together, we have 80 years experience," says Brian Bennett.
"We are one of the oldest fabricators serving the market, and we've
always been a close-held family business. We were an old-line union plant
from the start," he adds.
But there is more to the family than this. Columbia has a sister company,
Olmsted Falls Erecting, called OFE in house. It is 10 years old this month
and works exclusively for Columbia. "It allows us control of quality
and scheduling," says Bennett, adding that the firm had its own ironworkers
when it was founded..
Currently, Terry Black is the general superintendent-"he had his
own company and brings a world of field knowledge to us," says Bennett.
Innovations galore
"We have to work smarter to make it," says Bennett, noting
that Columbia has many innovations on its record. For instance, that back
wall of the shop can come out, creating a 40-ft door to remove pieces. "We
once did an 80-x20-x10-ft elevator shaft in one piece, cut it apart and
reassembled it back on site," he says. "We worked out how to get
it under traffic lights and bridges, measuring to make sure it will fit.
We've been known to stop traffic." Columbia is also automated. Its
new FICEP CNC drill/saw is state-of-the-art, the first such in the U.S.,
allowing one operator to do both drilling and sawing to take a piece straight
from shop drawing to fabrication. And it had one of the few beam lines
in Cleveland. "It served us well," says Bennett. "We are
about to take it out of production so we can upgrade."
Challenge and pride
Through the years, Columbia has met many challenges.
One recent challenge: the enormous rise in steel costs in the last year,
where prices would only be held for 24 hours. "The rise in steel prices
has been brutal," says Bennett. And, despite some relief, "we
are starting to see a little of that starting again."
However, the firm continues to prosper. "Why did we succeed?"
Bennett asks. We have the combined experience of the family, and we deliver
a quality product, on time or even ahead of schedule, for a competitive
price. Ahead of schedule is good, especially if you do the amount of retail
or schools work that we do. We like to get in and get out, because we know,
with the kind of repeat business that we do, there will always be another
job to get to. If you are late, it will cost you clients, and Dad always
taught us to be on time."
"Our client list is a Who's Who of Cleveland," Bennett concludes.
"There is always some guy who can do it for less, but not as well and
not consistently. We've got the longevity." BXM
No typical jobs
Columbia Building Products has done work for projects across the entire
spectrum of construction, from schools to hospitality to warehouses.
Columbia thrives on its meat-and-potatoes work, but it also knows how
to meet a construction challenge.
The work that Columbia Building Products does is the kind of work that
built Cleveland. A typical job for Columbia is retail, says Brian Bennett,
president. It has done a lot of Targets, for example, and it is now working
on the City View project for the Darden Co., with tenants including Target,
Giant Eagle, Dick's Sporting Goods, Jo-Anne Fabric, A.J. Wright, PetSmart
and Bed, Bath and Beyond.
Schools and recreational work includes Cleveland Central Catholic and
Urban Community School, as well as Hawken Middle School for the A.M. Higley
Co., the Westlake Recreational Center addition and the Church on the Rise
Youth Center. Another strong niche for the firm is medical buildings, including
work for the Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals, and Parma Community
Hospital. Some projects: the Stem Cell Research building at the Clinic
for the Krill Co., the new Kaiser Permanente facility at Severance for Bolton
Pratt and work at South Pointe Hospital for Donley's, Inc.
Large warehouse type work includes Northern Haserot as a client and many
warehouses for M.E. Osborne.
Going beyond the norm
But besides the bread-and-butter work, there are specialties to be worked
out such as the platform at the Cleveland Botanical Gardens, built
in the Columbia shop in pieces, galvanized and put together on site.
And Case Western Reserve's Millis Center won a Craftsmanship Award. It's
four columns go up and out, while the roof slants; bendable drinking straws
were used in the design, with the enthusiastic support of the Bennett children.
But it was in the House of Blues that Columbia's inventiveness, and dedication
to meeting schedules, met their true tests. The project was built on the
fly to meet opening deadlines. "We would open up a wall, and something
would change based on what we found," says Bennett. "We cut a
hole in the floor and put in two new floors 9 feet above and 9 from that
level to form a ground floor and mezzanine facing the stage." Steel
railings were created to evoke Cleveland's steel heritage. And during selective
demolition by the general contractor, the building crumbled and had to be
razed, with a new three-story one squeezed into the space." bxm
