Top 5 Buildings for 2021

It’s good to stop and take stock, from time to time, and the end of the year gives us the opportunity to do that. We are grateful for all the projects we worked on this year, but some of them stood out to us.

Since we design every project from scratch, the variations that we encounter when designing buildings for our customers keep things interesting. We are never sure what they will throw at us next.

#1 Wenger

• 46,000 square feet
• Sebetha, KS
• Snow load 15 psf
• Wind Speed 90 mph

Wenger hired us to build a structure for food manufacturing and testing. The first challenge was actually constructing the building because we needed to put our structure over the existing building. Our crews installed the building over and around the facility that it was replacing. Then, with our fabric structure in place, the old building was dismantled and removed. This allowed Wenger to continue with their operations.

Because they were working with and testing food products, cleanliness was key. The design we gave them included our Exxotec™ PVC fabric as an interior liner. Having a smooth, white industrial fabric covering the interior made the facility much easier to clean and provided a bright interior environment for their employees. It also had numerous interior divider walls inside, also cladded with Exxotec™. This kind of interior divider was new for us, and the end result was something everyone was proud of.

#2 RDR Athletic Complex

• 28,800 square feet
• Sartell, MN
• Snow load 39.8 psf
• Wind speed 120 mph

In Central Minnesota, where Herb Brooks is a local hero, ice time is a big deal. The RDR Complex is a new ice arena, but it is also a multisport complex. When the ice comes up, the turf goes down. It then becomes a great practice facility for baseball, soccer and lacrosse. This was a hybrid structure featuring our tension fabric roof panels and steel cladding for the walls. Legacy’s projects are always custom builds, so accommodating the hybrid request from the building owners was something our designers could do.

In this case, the structure went up before the ice arena was installed. Lee Gruen from Bradbury Stamm Construction was the contractor for the project. “It was pretty seamless for us. Your guys just showed up and put the building up and it was a done deal. It was nice.”

Adding the new ice arena will allow the surrounding community to host more youth hockey tournaments.

#3 Castlen Steel

• 68,040 square feet (two buildings)
• Owensboro, KY
• Snow load 8.5 psf
• Wind speed 105 mph

This is a pair of fertilizer storage buildings that incorporated our highest level of corrosion protection for the steel frames. EpoxxiShield™ COR Elite is a three-coat painting system that is designed for the protection in the most highly corrosive environments. Fertilizer dust is one of the more corrosive substances we deal with when designing bulk storage, so using a state-of-the-art epoxy system was the ideal solution.

We protect our steel frames for our customers because so much depends on them. In the case of Castlen, our frames are engineered to support the conveyor system that the customer requested. This two-building project had impressive manufacturing and installation timeframes that helped the building owners get up and running, thereby speeding up their ROI.

#4 Ed Kneisel Riding Arena

• 13,600 square feet
• Morganton, GA
• Snow load 9.5 psf
• Wind speed 98 mph

Sometimes getting there is half the battle. In the case of Ed Kneisel’s Riding Arena, it was more than half. Kneisel had a beautiful spot for his new riding arena, but getting all the building components to the site was a challenge. Poised in the mountains of Georgia, you couldn’t ask for a more picturesque setting. Unfortunately, our semis could only get the beams and other building components to a point a mile from the site. Our crews transferred them the rest of the way with forklifts. They made it look so easy, the building owner thought we did this kind of transfer all the time.

Legacy’s ability to customize a structure came in handy on this project, making the riding arena fit in the given footprint. It’s located right next to the horse barn and acts as a kind of extension of the stables. The beautiful result convinced us that it is often worth it to go the extra mile.

#5 Cedar Grove Holding Facility

• 7,200 square feet
• Seattle, WA
• Snow Load 60 psf
• Wind speed 110 mph

In the Pacific Northwest, handling food waste and yard waste is a priority for the surrounding communities. The building we created for this private compost company helps to not only store the waste but also to convert it to useful material for the agricultural businesses. This structure is a satellite collection facility, and it’s located in mountains outside of Seattle. That meant engineering it for heavy snow loads and also customizing the structure so it would fit in the given footprint.

Those are, of course, not all the highlights of our year. Every project our customers bring to us presents us with new challenges and new opportunities to improve our quality, our reliability and our safety. Thanks for helping us learn more, grow our business in good directions, and help our customers meet their building needs.