The design and construction industry faced numerous challenges in 2022—from labor shortages to rising building material costs to new legislation. Throughout the supply chain, manufacturers, fabricators, suppliers, designers, builders, and all alike have proven their ability to think strategically and outside the box to remove or minimize the various obstacles.
In particular, prefabrication was one of the solutions they sought out to help combat labor issues in the field. Fire Trol prefabricated fireproof columns became the optimal solution for many because these high-quality columns arrive at the job site ready to be erected with no need for additional labor.
Our 2022 Year in Review makes it clear that we’ve accomplished a lot as a team this year despite the external conditions. We made it our goal to focus on helping our customers and design professionals streamline their processes – saving time in the field and making education, tools, and resources more accessible and easier to understand.
Fire Trol Makes It Easy to Specify our Product
To start our 2022 year in review, we’re excited to share that we got our Canadian Underwriter Laboratories certification! This additional certification will streamline the process of writing specifications and choosing quality, innovative steel building materials and columns for Canadian projects.
It’s our goal to make specifying Fire Trol prefabricated fireproof columns easy for architects, in Canada and the US. That’s why we updated our specification sheets and product specification guide as well.
Enhanced AIA Continuing Education Program
While AIA continuing education course presentations have been traditionally facilitated face-to-face as a Lunch & Learn, they have looked a little different since 2020.
We are utilizing multiple methods of sharing our course content, including live webinars exclusive to your firm. We cater to what works best for your team.
Our National Sales Manager, Tricia Brindle, worked hard to meet and present our course content to 60 architecture and engineering firms in 2022! She traveled far and wide (and sometimes just walked to her desk) to show architects, designers, and engineers how Fire Trol steel columns can effectively support their design needs.
Participants received 1 HSW AIA continuing education hour for attending our Lunch & Learns. It’s the perfect excuse to get the team together for lunch and FREE continuing education. Book a Lunch & Learn for your team in 2023 to see how Fire Trol can improve your projects.
Continuing Education Continues to Be Valued
Fire Trol has always emphasized educating architects, designers, and engineers about our products and the options available within the steel building materials sector. However, this year, we improved our efforts.
We spent time reviewing our course presentation to ensure the quality of information and product images. We also optimized our website and AEC Daily resources to make it easier on you to find our courses and understand what each course is about.
As a result, in 2022 over 1,000 Architects took our AEC Daily courses (in both the US and Canada). We offer two self-paced courses that are available for 1 HSW AIA credit: Showcase-Quality Exposed Fireproof Columns and Structural Steel: Sustainability & Fireproofing (also available for 1.5 GCBI credit).
We Upped Our Tradeshow and Webinar Game
Our team attended various events this year to connect with architects and engineers face-to-face.
We presented in multiple ATS virtual seminars including their Fire-Rated Products and Built to Last seminars. We also traveled to Denver, CO for CSI Conference 2022. As a premium sponsor, we got to present a Lightning Round Product Demo on prefabricated fireproof columns. You also may have seen us at New York Build and the AIA Conference on Architecture. While at AIA’22, we even got to see our Chinatown Public Library project in person!
Additionally, we developed some additional collateral materials to enhance our tradeshow presence. We learned a lot from each event we attended and enjoyed meeting so many amazing people in the industry. Keep an eye on our Events page to see upcoming events we’ll be attending in 2023!
We Marketed Ourselves Like Never Before
Earlier in the year, we realized that we needed help building brand awareness. We quickly found a marketing agency to help us in various areas, and they moved fast to get our website up-to-date.
We’ve added a Portfolio page that features some of our projects and includes details of interest. Also, we added an Events page to let our audience know where we will be next!
We’ve improved our presence on LinkedIn and Facebook to inform and educate our audience, staying away from ‘salesy’ posts. Additionally, we publish one educational blog each month. You can also subscribe to our email newsletter that goes out once a month where you can get industry news, company announcements, and notice of new blogs or collateral available.
2022 Project Highlights
To close out our review, we want to say thank you to the architects who trusted Fire Trol prefabricated columns in their projects. We strive to improve and continue to make educating our focus!
If you are in the area of one of the completed projects below, stop in and see the aesthetically pleasing addition Fire Trol columns offer to any structure. You can also view our project portfolio online.
Project Name |
Architectural Firm |
|---|---|
| 31-33 Woodlawn Street, Jamaica Plain, MA | Scales Architecture |
| White Gables Pavilion, Charlottesville, VA | James P. Griggs, Architect |
| Ridge Development, Chicago, IL | SLH Architects |
| Parker Hannifin, New Haven, CT | Robert Day Architects |
| Jamaica Armory, Jamaica, NY | Envision Architects |
| DASNY SUNY Albany, Albany, NY | EYP Architecture & Engineering |
| Duke AOA Food Hall NY, NY | FX Collaboratives |
| University of Florida, Gainesville, FL | Bohlin Cywinski Jackson |
| Lifegift, Houston, TX | Ray + Hollington Architects, Inc. |
| University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS | McCarty Architects |
| Bank of America, NY, NY | Gensler |
| University of Iowa, North Liberty, IA | Newman Monson Architects |
2022 Year in Review and Moving Forward in 2023
2022 was an amazing year for Fire Trol and our customers, and we are ready for 2023! We have new goals, but our vision remains the same: to make it easier for architects, engineers, and designers to specify our products and to give them continuing education resources about steel building materials and prefabricated fireproof columns.
Learn more about our products and discover why Fire Trol is the optimal and sustainable building solution for your next project.
Stay connected with us on social media to stay up to date on all things Fire Trol! If you would like to get in touch with our team, please contact us today.
