The Evolution of Steel Buildings Over the Years

Steel buildings are among the most popular choices for people building garages, barns, storage buildings and workshops because they offer a number of important benefits, but they weren’t always the first choice for building. Over the years, the face of the typical steel building has undergone a quiet evolution that raised it from the awkward and ugly but very useful structure it once was into today’s aesthetically pleasing, stylish and very affordable building that’s at home in nearly any setting. These are the highlights of decades of history of metal buildings.

In 1849 as thousands of adventurers headed west to find gold in California, a savvy New York roofer struck gold in a much more pragmatic and practical metal. Peter Naylor designed and sold what may be the world’s first modular steel buildings. According to his advertising, he designed and sold “portable iron housing for California” – modular structures that could be shipped flat and constructed into a 20’ by 14’ structure at the destination. The major selling point – all the grooved pieces fit together easily and could be constructed in a day.

Today’s manufacturers of metal buildings offer far more designs and options than Mr. Naylor did 160 years ago, but the ease of construction is still a major selling point for residential steel buildings.

In the early years of the 20^th century as the automobile started to make its way into popular use, architects and builders designed the first steel garages to house them. The technology used in producing and building them grabbed the attention of the construction world for its innovation and easy reproducibility.

Garages are still among the most popular uses for steel buildings, but today’s metal garages can be custom-designed to fit the design aesthetic of any home or neighborhood.

The technology used to build steel modular homes and garages attracted the notice of farmers and ranchers. Cost was a major consideration among farmers and ranchers, who popularized the use of steel for agricultural storage buildings and equipment sheds. A steel building could be built for a fraction of the cost of traditional agricultural structures, and steel was less prone to weather damage and fire.

Today, steel is widely used for barns, storage buildings, grain silos and equipment garages on farms and ranches of all sizes and types.

In the 1940s, the Quonset building, based on Quonset steel buildings used by the Army during World Wars I and II, swept the country, especially in agricultural areas. The arch-shaped buildings were easy to erect, cheap to build and sturdy enough to withstand the severe weather that often struck the Midwestern plains. The arch construction that made Quonset buildings so strong and easy to construct is the basis for the most popular of today’s steel building designs and modified Quonset design that features a rounded roof and sloping sides is one of the strongest types of structures for storage buildings in areas with the most severe winter weather.

Peter Naylor probably never suspected what his portable iron houses would become in the future, but one would hope he’d look at modern steel buildings with a touch of great-grandfatherly pride and more than a little amazement at the conveniences and options that today’s steel building manufacturers offer their customers.