National Steel Car, Ltd. (NSC) has been a leading North American rail car manufacturer since 1912; its Hamilton, Ontario, manufacturing plant is currently the single largest rail car manufacturing facility on the continent, with an annual capacity of approximately 12,000 rail cars. In 2006, NSC’s long range strategic expansion plan culminated with the decision to form a US Subsidiary, National Alabama Corporation (NAC), and build its first facility on a Greenfield site in the United States, ultimately choosing The Shoals, Alabama, in the spring of 2007.
Kahn was brought into the project by Jones Lang LaSalle (formerly operating as the The Staubach Company), a Dallas-based commercial real estate and program management firm. Pete Lynde, PE, LEED AP, Kahn’s principal on this project, says he sensed in his very first meeting with JLL and NSC in June 2006 that NSC’s Chairman and CEO, Gregory J. Aziz, was as keenly interested in automating the rail car manufacturing process as he was in the engineering and architectural design concepts Lynde and his team were presenting.
“Mr. Aziz, as we soon learned, is an informed student of architecture. He appreciates its history, understands the balance between function and form, and was familiar with the industrial legacy of Kahn,” says Lynde. “Our company name may have been to our advantage in this case, since our founder was held in such high regard by their CEO. When our proposal was competitive, it tipped the scales in our favor.”
Peter Earle, NSC’s Managing Director of Corporate Affairs, agrees that Kahn’s stellar reputation was a factor in its hiring.
“We were expanding into a state-of-the-art U.S. facility, with a vision focused on effectiveness and efficiency,” says Earle. “So when you’re looking at establishing that kind of quality and innovation, you’re looking for partners who can deliver. And certainly Kahn has a first-rate global reputation for doing just that. Their pedigree – especially in industrial architecture and manufacturing, whether it’s automotive or other industries – is excellent.”
Yet even more important than its reputation, says Earle, was the way individual members of the Kahn team presented themselves from the outset.
“The Kahn people are professional,” he says. “You knew immediately how intently they listened to what we had to say – to what we wanted to achieve. We felt very comfortable that they would be effective and they have been; it’s proven out. Their capabilities have been outstanding.”
Momentous and Straightforward. The Perfect Ratio.
NAC and Kahn.The Perfect Ratio.
