Winter 1970

Soule steel News Volume 8 No. 4 Winter Issue December 1970

Soule Builds Santa Fe Truck-Rail Facility

Santa Fe Industries' wholly owned subsidiary, Western Carloading, Inc., recently decided to build a huge new $1.2 million truck and rail terminal in San Francisco's China Basin industrial area.

And Salesman Bob Zbikowski and Buildings Division Operations Manager Al Colombo made sure - even before the contract was sent out for bids - that Soule would be ready to compete.

Zbikowski, who sells Soule products regularly to customers in the China Basin area, heard early in the game that Santa Fe planned to build a Soule-type building.

Zbikowski, Colombo, Los Angeles Salesman Steve Skromeda, and others in the Soule Buildings Division inspected the Santa Fe Engineering Department's designs to make sure Soule building materials conformed with Santa Fe specifications.

"It's important to get the owner and architects' approvals on some alterations even before the bidding for the construction contract," says Colombo. Skromeda met with Santa Fe engineers in Los Angeles to seek these approvals.

"In this case," says Skromeda, "if there were some requirements that we felt would prevent us from bidding on the contract, we were able to negotiate with the architects in the hope they would accept our substitutions."

Consequently, in February 1970, when Santa Fe let the contract for bid, Soule Buildings Division was able to assure the low bidder, Empire Construction Co., Inc., of San Francisco, that Soule would be able to supply the steel supports, sides and roof.

Soule's portion of the job sold for over $201,000.

"This is a large job for us," says Colombo, "not our largest by any means, but a big one."

The truck-rail terminal is an L-shaped building situated on a pie-shaped piece of land at Fourth and Michigan Streets in San Francisco. It will be Santa Fe's principal sorting point for goods being distributed in the San Francisco area.

Goods shipped from the East via Santa Fe Railway are loaded into boxcars destined for San Francisco. At Santa Fe's East Bay railroad terminals, the boxcars are transferred onto barges and brought by tugs to the San Francisco side of the Bay. From the barges, the boxcars are rolled onto a spur track that leads to the new truck-rail terminal, where the cars are unloaded and sorted for city delivery.

The outside of the new terminal is covered with specially designed blue sculptured side panels and white hi-rib roofing panels.

The inside is 100 feet wide, with an unobstructed stretch from wall to wall. The long leg of the "L" runs 800 feet and the short leg, 160.

Adrian Carpentier and Gordon Hall, Soule's job captains for the project, say that the most intricate part of the job was detailing the hip-and-valley roof design where the two legs of the "L" join.

"The 'L' necessitated calculations that we normally don't have in simpler, straight-line structures," says Carpentier. "But the hip-and-valley construction gives a visually and architecturally pleasing effect, with one roof flowing smoothly into the other."

Soule Designer John Kaskavalciyan explains that the special engineering of the rafters, which eliminates interior supports, provides unobstructed working space within the terminal.

Soule's Los Angeles Plant Manager Jack Dressen was in charge of fabricating the construction materials and shipping them to San Francisco. Norm Hopp, the Soule Coordinator, made sure the materials arrived as they were needed at the job site.

Soule's general superintendent in the field was George Woods and the first crew foreman was Don Radonich, with others replacing him as the construction progressed.

(Continued on page 4)

*Photo: SANTA FE will use this Soule building, now being constructed in San Francisco's China Basin industrial area, as a sorting and distribution site for all goods being shipped via Santa Fe to the San Francisco area. Soule had the subcontract for providing the pre-engineered columns and rafters, purlins and girts and the sheet-metal sides and roof. The metalwork, started in October was completed before Christmas.*

*Photo: Former Employees Now At Western Lath*

TWO FORMER Soule employees pose in front of the Oakland building Soule built for Western Metal Lath Co., a division of Republic Corp. On the left is Allen Dunbar and on the right Ray Harding, both of whom, worked in the San Francisco offices.

*Photo: Maja Chats with West Germans*

LADY engineer Maja Peceli of the Architectural Products Division chats over lunch in the Soulé restaurant with members of a West German delegation of Architectural Metal Manufacturers. The 40 to 50 man delegation toured the San Francisco plant as well as other U.S. window manufacturing plants. Maja is from Yugoslavia.

*Photo: Guests Visit A.P. Division*

ABOUT 100 men from the Construction Specification Institute recently toured the San Francisco plant. The men, all of whom were architects, engineers or specification writers, were guests of the Architectural Products Division. The guests seemed most interested in some of the big jobs Soulé has in progress, the hurricane test facility and the anodizing tanks. In the photo, Engineer Bob Bannatyne is showing some of them around the San Francisco engineering department.

*Photo: Dealers Meet for Soule Training*

NEWLY franchised Soule Building Dealers met in the middle of November for the special training Gene Fuller, (white shirt, front row) gives to new dealers. At the training were: (l to r, back row) Ralph Nelson, Nelson Construction, Twin Falls, Ida.; Carl Jackson, Humboldt Construction Specialties, Eureka, Calif.; Frank Gore, Gus Gore & Sons, Durham, Calif.; Pete Heineman, Soule Dealer Representative; (front row) Earl Nelson, Nelson Construction; Leonard Jackson, Humboldt Construction; Dealer Sales Manager Fuller; Harvey Gore, Gore & Sons; Ira Briggs, W.W. Wilson Co., Sacramento, and Warren Blodgett, Wilson Co.

People in the News

*Photo: Carl Brooks, Inc. - Dealer of the Month*

SUCCESS STORIES are a joy to hear about — and Soule’s relationship with Carl Brooks, Inc., has been a joyful one. Carl Brooks (center), a general contractor in the Long Beach area, built his first Soule building in 1964. In 1968 he acquired the Soule franchise for the Orange County-Long Beach territory. In the photo, L. A. Salesman John Crowhurst presents Brooks and Gene Springer, a former Soule employee, with the award.

*Photo: Retiring Millworker Given a Saw*

WHEN OTTO Hoover retired last month from the Long Beach Steel Mill, where he had worked for 13 years, his fellow workers gave him a surprise gift. They presented him with something he had long wanted, a radial saw, which he assured them would get good use at his desert retirement home.

Old Friends Attend Selig Retirement

*Photo: Lee Soulé, Herb Lange, S. P. Selig*

When a man has been with a company for 47 years, he makes a lot of friends and he hates to leave them when he retires. So, it was with real warmth and feeling that old friends gathered to say goodbye to Sylvan P. Selig when he retired in October.

Selig started working with U.S. Metal Products in 1923 and came to Soulé as a sash estimator in 1930 when Soulé bought U.S. Metal. A number of his employee friends attended the retirement luncheon at the World Trade Club in San Francisco.

When he retired, Selig was the Soulé San Francisco Purchasing Agent. Soulé President Lee Soulé presented him with a service pin and Executive Stan Soulé gave him a retirement certificate.

In the photo, Herb Lange, new Projects Manager for the Architectural Products Division, is presenting Selig with a memento - an old U.S. Metal Products Co. catalogue. Paul Merrill, Director of Purchasing, gave him a retirement gift.

*Photo: SHOWN in the picture above is the field crew installing the Soulé aluminum windows in the new Pacific Gas & Electric Co. building in San Francisco. Left to right, standing, are W. Oulsen, E. Walls, Mike Candelaria, C. Dunn, Denny Waterman, glazing foreman, Bill Seib, Paul Rasmussen, Ric Ryan, Charley Dennison, and Bill Williams. Kneeling are Clarence Reynolds, Gene Welch, Fred McGhee, general foreman, Frank Malaney, Bud Ockenfels, Dutch Mahle and Monte Finley.*

SOULÉ HARD HATS ARE HARD WORKERS

Sometimes the men who wear the hard hats are the ones who get the least recognition. It takes a lot of know-how and hard work to construct San Francisco's new P.G. & E. building, but the crew shown above did it. And on the right Tom Lustig and Foreman Rico Molinari demonstrate one of those skills, installing the reinforcing bars for the new United Airlines hangar in South San Francisco.

*Photo: Tom Lustig, Rico Molinari*

Houston Building Passes Hurricane Test

AT LEAST two of the men were properly dressed for the hurricane, when Soulé tested a 500 sq. ft. portion of the curtainwall for the Houston Tower No. 35 job. This job is one of the largest dealer installed curtainwalls ever done by Soulé. Both the window and spandrel glass are semi-mirrored, making the four elevations of the tower huge reflectors. The architect, distributor and glass manufacturer came to the San Francisco Plant for the tests. In the picture are (l to r) James Bedford, Vice-President of Soulé's Architectural Products; George Canterbury of Binswanger Glass Co., Houston; Herman Lloyd of the architectural firm of Lloyd, Morgan & Jones of Houston, who designed the tower; James Greer, President of Shelton W. Greer Co., the Soulé distributor in Houston; and "Stoney" Brooks, a salesman for S. W. Greer.

Safety Dept. Warns of Christmas Hazards

Don't let the sound of Jingle Bells in your driveway be those of a fire engine. Christmas trees are one of the many decorative symbols of the Yuletide season that can be the source of a deadly fire.

Here are a view items that will help you have a safe and enjoyable Christmas.

1. Buy a fresh tree whose branches aren't brittle and shed needles easily. 2. Saw off the trunk at an angle at least one inch above the original cut. Place tree in water and keep water level above the cut at all times. 3. Do not place tree in front of a doorway and keep away from heat sources. 4. Artificial trees should be made of fire retardant material. 5. Inspect wiring to insure it is in good condition. Use only approved type lights. 6. Do not plug too many cords into one outlet. 7. Turn off all tree lighting before retiring or leaving the house.

Remember common sense is the best safety guide. Make your Christmas a happy and joyous one.

Names In The News

Photo: Lucas Photo: Simonson

Following the unexpected death of Harry Lange (see In Memoriam), W. J. (Bill) Lucas was named as District Manager in the Phoenix District Office. Lucas has been with the company for nine years. Just before this promotion, he was Santa Ana Plant Manager. Jack Simonson, who has been working in the Estimating Department of the Reinforcing Steel Division, was appointed the new Santa Ana Plant Manager. Simonson has been with the company for over three years and has been both an inside and an outside salesman in the Los Angeles District.

Herb Lange, who has held many positions of responsibility with the company, has been appointed Project Manager for the Architectural Products Division effective Dec. 1. Lange, most recently an engineer in the A. P. Division, has been with the company for over 40 years.

Photo: DON RADONICH, left, was the first crew foreman at the Santa Fe Terminal. The crew, which worked straight through on the construction, are (l to r) Steve Bales, Ray Bostrom, Gary Thompson, Bill McKiernan and Rich Alexander. They were putting the finishing touches on in mid-December.

Photo: O'Dell

Duane O'Dell has joined the engineering staff at the Steel Mill in Los Angeles as a Design Engineer. He was formerly with U.S. Steel in Torrance, Calif. He is married, has two children and lives in Miraleste, Calif. During his off-duty hours, he is an active pilot in the Naval Reserve.

NAMES - Con't

Photo: Mrs. Love Photo: Mrs. Patton

Mrs. Pat Patton has been promoted from personnel secretary to personnel assistant in the Los Angeles Personnel Office. She will be responsible for most personnel functions. She is married, has four children and lives in South Gate, Calif. Also Los Angeles has a new industrial nurse, Mrs. Mattie J. Love. She started in October, is the mother of a teen-age daughter and lives in Los Angeles.

Santa Fe - Con't

The field work began near the first of October, as soon as the contractor was ready, and was virtually completed by the first of December. Not bad timing for the construction of a building the size of this one!

"It used to be," says Zbikowski, "we had to go into the trucking and railroad firms and convince them of the suitability of pre-engineered steel buildings. At that time they preferred other building materials. But the efficiency of unobstructed, clear-span construction and the speed with which the buildings can be erected have convinced them. Now they know our product and they want to use it."

In Memoriam

Harry G. Lange, who had been District Manager in Phoenix for the last 10 years, passed away suddenly on Oct. 10. He went to Pheonix from San Francisco, when Soulé opened its sales district there in November of 1960.

Lange was born and raised in San Francisco. He joined Soulé Steel as a reinforcing bar salesman in 1944. He is survived by his wife, Elsie, and two children.

The Soulé News' masthead has the names of two new Associate Editors for this month's issue. They are Hazel Gallois in Santa Ana and Ruthanne Penniman in Ventura. Of course, they have other duties - Hazel is the new office secretary in Santa Ana and Ruthanne has the same position in Ventura.

Winter 1970 Issue SOULÉ NEWS Published Quarterly by the Soulé Steel Company, 1750 Army Street San Francisco, California Howard S. Soulé, Editor Associate Editors Bill Bristol Niles O. Millar, Alumni San Francisco Jerry Unrein Jo Davis Los Angeles Fresno Dolores Bedgood Portland John Rogachenco Dominguez Lucile Van Dusen Salt Lake Grace Johnson Ruthanne Penniman Ventura San Diego Hazel Gallois Santa Ana Kathy Steyskal Newark Ferman Davis Phoenix