SMACNA Oregon & Southwest Washington contractors to complete essential scopes of work on the 10,000-square-foot expansion
By Jessica Kirby
The Sheet Metal Institute is undergoing a $4 million expansion that will provide much needed resources to apprentices and the industry in Oregon and Southwest Washington.
“The expansion has been needed for years now,” says Ben Wood, training coordinator at Sheet Metal Institute. “It will mainly provide more working space for the hands-on and shop activities of a trade school.”
The current 40,000-square-foot training center was built in the 1990s with a college-like set-up comprising lots of classrooms and just 6,000 feet of shop space.
The expansion will add 10,000 square feet of additional shop space on the south side of the building where a fenced-in paved lot has been used for storage and scrap bins.
The new, two-story area with high ceilings will include an essential hands-on installation practice area where apprentices can learn to install ductwork and work safely at heights in a controlled environment, out of the weather.
“The new shop space will house a steel mock-up structure to mimic an industrial/commercial building to give students a real-world installation platform for their sheet metal fabrication and installation skills,” Wood says. Just like a commercial jobsite, this area will include steel structures, concrete and metal deck floors, shafts, and canopies. The new space will also include a compressor room and a gas bunker to store bottled welding gases.
Previously, the training center taught shop work and building skills, such as sheet metal fabrication and testing and balancing, but relied on contractors to show apprentices how to complete installations.
“This expansion helps us to grow with industry needs and better house our kinesthetic learning environment,” Wood adds, noting that the extra space will also mean the current curriculum can expand to encompass better cranes, rigging, and signaling, larger and more comprehensive technologies, and more welding booths.
Most of the add-on structure will be concrete, but members working for three Local 16 signatory contractors will also be performing some of the work on their training center expansion. General Sheet Metal will do the HVAC work on the project, Swan Island Sheet Metal Works will be doing structural steel, and Arctic will be doing architectural metal.
James Slater, employer trustee of the JATC and executive at McKinstry, says it is exciting to have SMACNA Oregon & SW Washington contractors work on the project. “The final product will be influenced by the craftsmanship of our local firms,” he says. “Having General Sheet Metal, Swan Island, and Arctic driving the HVAC, structural, and architectural work on our training facility is a testament to the capability of contractors in this region. Ultimately, many of us are competitors in business, but I think all of us recognize the high level that SMACNA Oregon & SW Washington contractors are operating on.”
The expansion will test out a model project labor agreement (PLA) that local unions hope could become a template for private construction projects. The Sheet Metal Institute’s leadership team required all work to be complete by union companies and workforce, and so mandated general contractor Perlo Construction to sign a PLA with Columbia Pacific Building Trades Council.
Two million in funding for the jointly operated training center will come from reserves, while union-led IBEW and United Workers Federal Credit Union will finance a mortgage loan for the rest.
Last year, Local 16 members approved a 10-cent-an-hour building assessment contribution to pay back the loan. Once the loan is paid off, that money will go back on their paychecks.
Site work, demolition, and clearing began on May 11, 2026, and the expansion is expected to be complete by the end of the year. ■
