Plan Architecture tapped Thompson Solutions Group (TSG) of Sioux City, Nebraska, to create the exterior of the new Lab and Students Center at the Winnebago Nation’s Little Priest Tribal College, about 30 minutes south of Sioux City. “We have a great relationship with Nathan Kalaher of Plan Architecture in Sioux City,” says James Olson, TSG’s Executive Vice President and SMC-Iowa Chapter President. “He’ll bring us into some of these projects early on to help select a product that’s going to hit his budget as well as be functional and give the look that he’s after.”
This project incorporated a unique look that combined a wood-grained texture and prefinished steel.
Olson relishes the creative opportunities of starting a project during the design phase. “It’s listening to the architect and figuring out how we can help create the vision that he has for this building, to make it look as beautiful as the initial renderings and bring it to life.”
Thompson Solutions Group fabricated and installed 10,000 square feet of custom wall panels on this project.
TSG keeps SMACNA Standards handy while making design decisions. “We use the Architectural Sheet Metal Manual often when we’re giving advice on how to build these and make them perform with the intent that the architect wants,” Olson says. “We reference the appropriate gauges and heights of these panels before we put in expansion joints so that they will perform and stay flat and not oil can.
For the Lab and Students Center, Plan Architecture chose a one-of-a-kind look that translates a wood-grain texture into prefinished steel. “These are really unique materials that we’re working with,” Olson says. “We probably won’t ever use this color of material again. It’s going to be its own, unique project, and then we’ll move on to the next one.”
A custom coil manufacturer printed the wood grain finish onto the steel, then TSG bought the steel from them and fabricated the panels in their Sioux City shop. “This was a product that we were able to fabricate in our own facility, without having to work with a major manufacturer,” Olson says. “We can coordinate that much, much faster and control the schedule, bringing it in at a lower price point than if we had been dealing with a national manufacturer for metal panels.”
TSG hit an unplanned obstacle when the supplier took longer than expected to produce the custom coil. “It was a very detailed process to get it manufactured the way that the architect and owner wanted for the building,” Olson says. Multiple runs delayed the work by about six months. “We bid this project in July of 2023, and completed it March 1, 2025,” though the actual fabrication and installation only took about four weeks. “It compressed our schedule toward the end of the project, so we were finishing this up as they were looking to occupy the building. The biggest challenge was working in a compressed schedule to get this building open while still maintaining the quality. We never would have been able to hit the schedule had we not had total control of the fabrication.”
Fortunately, TSG has the expertise they needed to meet their high standards while coping with delays. “Our architectural sheet metal crew is roughly 16 to 18 people, which is a good size for our area of the country, and our people have significant experience in doing this sort of work,” Olson says. “We get to an installation standpoint of maybe modifying a detail so that it can functionally work the way that the architect and owner wanted it to.” The shop foreman and the foreman who led the Little Priest Tribal College installation each have over 20 years of experience. “These specific foremen understand how to get these panels to perform, to be weather tight, and to be as flat as possible.” They used all the tricks of the trade and successfully aligned the panels from top to bottom across the three-story walls, as if they were actual boards.
TSG fabricated and installed about 10,000 square feet of custom flush wall panels and trim for the three-story, 135,000 square foot building. The 22-gauge prefinished steel panels are 12 inches wide with V grooves at 4 inches and were printed with a Siamese Quarter Sawn wood grain pattern. The fabrication took two men about 300 hours in the shop, and on-site installation took a crew of four about 900 more hours, for a total of 1,200 work hours.
