|
The Smoke Guard Corporation was incorporated in 1991 and operated as
an independent company until the RectorSeal Corporation purchased it in
September 2004. By the close of 2004, Smoke Guard has expanded our install
base to over 12,000 units installed domestically, and over 15,000 units
installed worldwide.
Tom Allen, Architect and Entrepreneur.
Tom Allen worked for many years as a licensed architect with several
Boise, Idaho architectural firms specializing in commercial renovations
and historic preservation. He graduated from the University of Utah with
a degree in Psychology and followed it up with an Architectural degree
from the University of Idaho. Tom’s interest in the intricacies
of historical renovation coupled with his innovative spirit would later
become the germination for the Smoke Guard System.
The 1980 MGM Grand fire in Las Vegas (in which there were multiple deaths
on upper floors due to smoke inhalation) helped to raise national awareness
and reinforce concern over the dangers of vertically migrating smoke in
multi-story buildings. By 1984, Tom became focused on the complexities
of meeting life safety requirements for vertical smoke migration within
the building code. While working on a series of renovation projects including
the Jefferson Building, a former lodge hall in downtown Boise, Tom found
that there were no officially recognized products that would adequately
satisfy code at the elevator while still allowing him to maintain his
open design concept. In 1991 Tom left his architectural partnership to
develop a code complying product, which he later dubbed the Smoke Guard
System, while completing commercial architectural projects at night. From
1991 through 1993, Tom worked closely with the ICBO Evaluation Service
to develop Acceptance Criteria for this product and, in June 1993 was
issued a Research Report from the ICBO ES and a listing from an independent
testing laboratory in support of the Smoke Guard System.
25 People Serving the World.
Given our expanding markets both nationally and internationally, we often
joke about “25 people serving the world” from Boise, Idaho.
From the “garage” days of SGC when Tom tinkered away from
his home with the help of his neighbor Eric Holstine (now the VP of Technical
Services) to the present professional and manufacturing staff of 25, many
employees have literally grown up with SGC.
Staying Power/Response to Adversity.
Tom Allen’s ingenuity and perseverance resulted in the founding
of the Smoke Guard (SG) in 1991. A large part of SG’s staying power
and subsequent growth is due to the organization’s dedication to
monitoring and working to influence both national and international building
codes.
As the national building codes throughout the country have changed over
the last ten years, so have we. The SG team has taken Tom’s great
product concept, evolved it, and continued to work diligently to expand
our niche as a code compliant life safety product. Our initial Smoke Guard
System, now dubbed Model 600, evolved under a favorable code climate of
the 1994 Uniform Building Code (UBC) in the western United States. This
code required that smoke control be addressed at virtually every elevator
hoistway opening in a multi-story structure.
Today, the once three separate regional building codes (Uniform
Building Code, Southern Building Code, and the National Building Code) in
the US have merged into one code, the International Building Code (IBC).
Under the 2000 IBC our sales territory has expanded to include most of the
United States, however, it is limited to only certain building occupancy
types. To aid us in penetrating new markets SGC moved to diversify the Smoke
Guard System product line. In 2001 we introduced a standardized economical
model of the Smoke Guard System, the Model 200. This offering was followed
by the introduction of the Smoke Guard System Model 400 in the fall of 2002.
The Model 400 combines the standardization of the Model 200 with the flexibility
and features of the Model 600. |
