This spring our founder died at the age of 78. John was a beloved son, husband, father and member of his community. And to us, John was so much more than the company’s founder. He built Huntco on his own hard work and strongly-held values, and the mark he left is still visible in the way we do business today. When I bought the company from John in 2000, he stayed on for months to make sure questions were answered, orders were being fulfilled and the transition was going smoothly. Huntco wouldn’t be what it is today without his ingenuity and commitment to serving the city he loved.
first Huntco logo
John was always the type to make something out of nothing. Looking to make a change from the real estate business in the late ‘80s, he discovered the potential of precast concrete piping. He realized it could easily be crafted into a durable and versatile trash receptacle. Concrete is resistant to graffiti, vandalism and natural wear and tear, and sturdy enough to act as a barrier around parking lots and storefronts. John’s first trash receptacle went to a convenience store in Northwest Portland. He created a logo by penciling a “cross-out” symbol over a clip art image of trash, and Huntco was born.
John took a special pride in engaging with the people of his community and meeting their needs in a unique way. His gift of gab served him well in recruiting new business and retaining loyal customers. If someone requested a site furnishing he didn’t offer, he’d figure out how to make it and add it to his catalog. He never passed up an opportunity, growing the business year after year while staying committed to quality products and by-hand process. In 1992, John hired his first employee, his oldest daughter Tori Lloyd. They expanded to national markets and continued to make Portland a showcase of Huntco products.
When Tori left Huntco, John hired a young man named James Bastron in 1996, fresh out of high school. John didn’t know James well, but he was the type of man to give people a chance. James initially handled packaging and deliveries and eventually worked his way into a role as an estimator. They often ate breakfast at the Dockside Saloon and worked shirtless on warm summer days with no air conditioning. Every spring they watched the Masters golf tournament on a TV in the office. Nearly twenty-five years later, James still works for Huntco. He’s also married to another of John’s daughters, Danielle.
In 1999 I was working long hours as a general contractor when I discovered that my uncle’s friend John was looking to sell his business. My wife and I made the decision to buy Huntco in July of 2000. When I took over operations, the company was running smoothly and I made very few changes. John worked with me to answer questions and identify growth opportunities. I transitioned the bookkeeping to computer software and expanded our list of offerings. But I didn’t come in with the intention to shake things up and change course. Just the opposite. I loved what the company did and what it stood for. Today Huntco has grown a little bigger and the product line is a little different, but the spirit remains the same. We do most of our fabrication right here in Portland and maintain many partnerships around the county. We’re proud to say that we are 100% American made. I think John would be proud of that too.
When the name of your apartment complex is Peloton, you pretty much have to get the bike amenities right. And the Peloton Apartments, recently completed on a rapidly growing stretch of North Williams Avenue in Portland, does not disappoint.
For the non-bike-nerds out there, a peloton is a group of cyclists riding in tight formation, to reduce air drag during a race or group ride. It might seem like an odd name for a brand new, somewhat luxurious housing development whose tenants are more likely to be programmers than bike mechanics, but this is Portland after all, and the bike-friendly lifestyle takes all kinds. It helps that the Peloton’s three buildings are flanked on either side by two of the busiest bike routes in the city: in warmer months, rush hour traffic on North Williams and its southbound sister North Vancouver is upwards of 40% bicycles.
Santoprene protects on the Burnside racks.
So in addition to three rooftop decks and some beautifully tricked-out common areas, the Peloton also serves as a kind of showcase of great bike amenities. There’s a whole ground-level bike parking area in the main building, equipped with dozens of Huntco’s Burnside staple racks, their elegant rectangular tubing softened on the edges with Santoprene bumpers, to protect delicate paint jobs. And set back from the woonerf that divides the complex (a delightful Dutch-style alleyway, accessible to the public) is a protected bike room with more than 200 Huntco Hawthorne wall-mounted racks, perfect for that second (or third) bike you don’t use quite as often.
BV-1 bike lockers and Burnside racks
Hawthorne Racks
Banking on the idea that several tenants will have bikes that they treasure and pamper, there’s an in-building Bike Club room with bench-mounted repair stands and a variety tools, and 10 gorgeous, mint-colored BV-1 bike lockers. Between these amenities, even the most road-obsessed tenant is going to feel well taken care of — an unusual value proposition for an apartment building.
The net effect of all these amenities, so thoughtfully installed, is a sense that this is a place that really means what it says. There are plenty of new apartment buildings using bike-centric imagery or messaging to sound more current, or more eco-friendly, but for anyone really making a go of active transportation as a daily habit, this kind of infrastructure is more than just a nice afterthought — it’s a game changer.
Recycling’s usually something we associate with beer cans, soda bottles and newspapers — simple things you can dump into a hopper and watch new products emerge from the other end (or something like that). Recycling’s not for anything big, expensive or useful we’re told, especially if we inquire about a damaged electronic gadget, and are advised to simply get a new one.
“We already had a bunch of racks piled in a storage area, and realized there was a lot we could probably do with them.”
— Clint Culpepper, Bicycle Program Coordinator at PSU
old racks, removed for construction
What about bike racks though? Clint Culpepper, the Bicycle Program Coordinator at Portland State University, faced this question a few months back, when a series of construction projects required removal of dozens of old staple racks. “We already had a bunch of racks piled in a storage area, and realized there was a lot we could probably do with them.”
In the early days of on-campus bike parking (more than, say, 10 years ago), racks were bolted into the concrete individually — a pretty labor-intensive approach when you’ve got thousands of bikes to accommodate. These days, the Bike Corral is the gold standard: four staple racks welded to two strips of plate steel for perfect positioning, better security, and faster installation.
Because most of the cost of a bike rack is in the steel, reuse makes a lot of sense, both environmentally and economically
prepped for fresh coating
“We basically called up Casey [Rice, at Huntco],” says Culpepper, “and said ‘Can you take care of this for us?’” Over the course of a few weeks, we trucked over 100 used racks of various sizes, shapes and states of repair into our shop. We burned off the old chipped paint, cut off the mounting flanges, welded them into corrals, and sent them off for powder-coating.
The result? 40 pristine corrals of consistent height and shape, in flawless PSU green, ready for installation. The cost? 40% less than buying new ones, not to mention massive energy savings by keeping the old ones out of the scrapyard.
recycled, Refreshed and ready to roll
a new life, as corrals
Culpepper explains that reuse is already a familiar option for PSU: a popular, long-running campus program has been refurbishing old bikes and providing them to students for years, part of an overall ethic of getting the most out of what you already have. As the campus continues to grow and evolve, and the fraction of students biking to school keeps rising, refurbished infrastructure doesn’t just make sense for the environment, it also makes sense for the bottom line.
We’re in France this week! Well, one of our team is anyway, spending some time with family in the friendly northern college town of Lille.
This being Huntco, what we’ve noticed about Lille, even more than the beautiful old cobblestone streets or the legendary beer (it’s only 30km from Belgium) is the bollards. Like a lot of mid-sized French cities, Lille is a great place to walk and bike, with a wonderfully rich street life — and one of the reasons why is extensive and thoughtful use of bollards, in ways that might be surprising to folks in North America.
The Place du Général de Gaulle is a good example. Usually just called the Grand Place (“big plaza”) by locals, this is a broad, brick-paved square fronted by bookstores, cafes, shops and a historic theater. It’s the undisputed heart of the city, frequented by thousands of people a day who come there to meet, shop, drink or just hang out. It also has a street snaking right through the middle of it, and a 422-space parking garage underneath.
So how do open up a big, public space to cars without turning your beloved Place into a parking lot? In Lille, you do it with bollards.
Using dozens of slender, elegant bollards at about 8 foot intervals, the city has demarcated a “street” that directs traffic through the plaza, while making it clear that cars are sharing the space with (far more numerous) people walking and biking. For pedestrians, the bollards just barely interfere with the flow of foot traffic, indicating where to watch out for vehicles but keeping the space permeable.
For drivers, the message is clear: proceed to the underground parking lot, or keep moving, slowly, until you’re clear of the shared space.
Just north of the Grand Place is another smart use of bollards along Rue Faidherbe, a short, majestic boulevard connecting the plaza to the city’s busiest train station.
In this case, the bollards line the one-way street (with two-way bike lanes), protecting broad sidewalks full of shoppers while making it easy to cross at any point. Strategic gaps in the bollards define intersections with side streets, funneling cars in a predictable way without impeding walkers — and leaving plenty of room for the city’s cafe culture to thrive.
Like the bollards that Huntco manufactures, these are unobtrusive enough that they become part of the urban fabric, not an interruption to it — in fact, they might even be a bit beloved.
The city also uses different types of bollards to lend a sense of place to different areas. Here’s a different type of bollard as you head toward the are de Lille Europe — the newer train station where the Eurostar from London stops.
You’d be hard pressed to find a city anywhere in the US that uses bollards so prolifically, or applies them so expressly toward directing cars, rather than just protecting pedestrian spaces. It’s a refreshing approach that could have some real impact in cities here, especially ones hoping to spur the kind of placemaking that’s clearly so good for business in cities like Lille.
Oh, and in case you’re wondering, the word bollard is French! And if Lille is any indication, France may well be the bollard’s homeland.
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Story and photos by Huntco team member and world traveler Carl Alviani.
We make our bike rack installations as difficult as possible for thieves to remove or tamper with, without taking extreme measures.
All Huntco flange bike racks are available with a minimum of two breakaway nuts (as shown here, one per side). The Burnside, Sellwood, and Fremont racks all come with four bolts. Security is our priority!
