ARLINGTON – Mackenzie Castings is used to fashioning pumps, pipes and other industrial hardware out of iron and steel. But one of its latest jobs has a more whimsical look.
The Arlington-based foundry was casting bulbous pieces in iron last week for a sculpture that will be installed inside Seattle-Tacoma International Airport’s newest terminal.
“Artwork is very unusual for us. It’s been fun,” said Dorothy Nerison, president and owner of Mackenzie Castings.
Tony Cooper, vice president at the foundry, picked up one of the finished iron pieces that will make up the hanging sculpture by artist Peter Shelton.
“It will look sort of like a caterpillar body when they’re all welded together,” Cooper explained.
Shelton, who has titled the sculpture “cloudsandclunkers,” said he came up with a cloudlike pattern after choosing a glass-ceiling location inside the airport’s new Concourse A for the artwork. Hanging from the ceiling will be translucent fiberglass pieces, while the iron pieces, which repeat the same pattern, will be on the floor below.
The decision to use iron for the floor pieces wasn’t hard for Shelton, who lives near Los Angeles. He’s worked with the material for years.
But finding a foundry was more difficult, he said.
“There’s precious few foundries working with iron these days,” he said. “And most are production-oriented, making pumps and other parts, so they’re not always sympathetic to casting art.”
A fabricating firm Shelton has been working with in Seattle found Mackenzie, he said.
While the final purpose of the iron pieces Shelton needs is more exotic than usual, the process of casting them isn’t.
Mackenzie workers heat up the iron to a glowing-hot 2,800 degrees in an electric melting furnace, pour it into the mold and wait for it to cast. It’s the same way the foundry casts iron and steel into everything from pump parts and pipes to huge boat propellers.
Many of the industrial parts Mackenzie Castings makes are for aluminum-processing plants.
“This company was founded on the aluminum plants,” Nerison said. “But we’ve had to diversify, because we know what’s happened with the aluminum plants.”
As rising electricity costs shut down many aluminum plants in the Northwest and elsewhere, Nerison has adapted. That, combined with the closure of other foundries, has kept Mackenzie Castings busy enough to run with two 10-hour shifts six days a week.
A big customer now is Vaughan Co., a Montesano-based maker of steel “chopper” pumps, which are used in everything from sewage treatment facilities to food-processing plants. Lately, Mackenzie’s work for overseas customers also has picked up, thanks in part to the weaker dollar, Nerison said.
The business also has survived higher electricity rates in recent years by working with the Snohomish County PUD. Mackenzie Castings now waits until 11 a.m. to fire up its large electric furnaces, which helps the PUD manage its demand. In return, the company gets a break on its bill.
Roy Mackenzie started Mackenzie Castings in 1977 on the northeast side of Arlington Airport. When he died in 1985, his stake in the company went to his wife, Nerison. A former schoolteacher and real estate agent at the time, Nerison wasn’t enthused about the business at first, she said.
“I came over here thinking I would sell it, and I’ve been at it for 20 years now,” she said.
During those two decades, Nerison learned the business in and out, became the first woman to serve on the board of the American Foundry Society and consolidated her ownership.
At 69, the Mill Creek resident has stepped back a little from managing the foundry’s day-to-day operation, putting more trust into a few longtime employees who seem interested in taking over the business.
While most of Mackenzie Casting’s products are little-seen parts of industrial plants, Nerison said she likes the idea that the art pieces the foundry is helping with will be seen by millions of passengers coming to or leaving Seattle. Even if nearly all of those people are unaware of the Arlington foundry’s contribution, she’s proud of it.
“It should be quite impressive,” she said, “and it’s kind of exciting to be part of that.”
Jolene Culler, art program manager for Sea-Tac, said “cloudsandclunkers” is scheduled to be installed sometime in the next month.
Reporter Eric Fetters: 425-339-3453 or fetters@heraldnet.com.
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