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Exterior Railings & Fences (Non-forged)
This category includes all railings and fences, including custom castings and cold forged elements, with less than 5% custom hand forgings.
Gold Winner:
Finelli Architectural Iron & Stairs
Solon, Ohio
The designer of the project was the fabricator. This railing was fabricated for a client's orchestral-themed garden and is a tribute to her late husband. The nonnegotiable requirement was that the rail had to contain the lyric line from their favorite song, "It Had To Be You." The Finelli Architectural Iron & Stairs team was given freedom of expression within the confines of functionality and were able to get whimsical with the design. The team created movement expressed through perspective by weaving the lines in and out of the posts leading the visitor up to the garden. After acquiring actual sheet music, the notes were cut with a waterjet. The music lines were cold rolled and heat formed, the split posts replicate the music score. Complexities were created through the offset weaving and wrapping of the ½" round bar. Even though the team used a full size plot, the bench work was difficult. Transitioning from stair to pitched sidewalk rails also added a level of difficulty. All the material was sandblasted, zinc metalized, and finish painted with an exterior enamel.
This project took approximately 190 hours of labor.
Silver Winner:
A2 Fabrication Inc.
Portland, Oregon
This railing project was designed by the architect. The following are details regarding the material and dimension:
#4 stainless steel
All material = 316 stainless steel
End Stanchions: 2 vertical plates per stanchion - 3/4"" tapered x 50"" high
Intermediate Stanchions: 2 vertical plates per stanchion - 5/8"" thick, tapered
Base plates: PL 3/4""
Top Rail and Grip Rail: 1 1/2"" sch 40 pipe
Grip Rail Brackets: Saddles = formed plated 1/4"", arms = FB 1/2 x 1 1/2
Cables: 1/2"" dia, SS 304 Apprx 280 individual cables @ 50' long
This project took approximately 1,993 hours (for 1020 LF) in labor.
Bronze Winner:
Chapala Iron & Mfg. Co.
Ventura, California
The designer for this project was the architect. The finish is Soda Blasted CORTEN + West Coast Elements "1/4"", 3/8"", 11 GA, CORTEN steel with 1/8"x1-1/4"x1-1/4" posts and IPE wood top rail. 1-1/"" pipe handrail 1/2" round solid handrail bracket returns 3/8" square head bolts 3/8"" square head lags. For the guard rail, the Chapala Iron & Mfg. team templated the curves and brought the frames back to the shop, measured off the frames, and plasma cut 11GA CORTEN sheets 36" high, using in-house generated DXF files. From there, the sheets were plate rolled to match the curve and fastened using 3/8" square head bolts to the frame. Install was simple for the Chapala Iron team. They just screwed into the deck with 3/8"" square head lags. For the stair rail, the team plasma cut 11 pieces of 1/4"" CORTEN plate, put a slight roll on them from top to bottom, and field welded them on the bottom 6" to a T that was formed during manufacturing of the stair treads. The team then templated a pipe handrail and field welded a bracket onto the back of each CORTEN panel. This added rigidity and was necessary to pass inspection.
This project took approximately 64 hours in labor.