Garco Building Systems Inc., the Spokane subsidiary of NCI Building Systems Inc., of Houston, is manufacturing a custom-designed, 82,000-square-foot aircraft hangar to be erected at Vancouver International Airport, in British Columbia.


The hangar will be owned by London Air Services, a division of Richmond, British Columbia-based London Drugs Ltd., a big retailer with 68 stores in four Canadian provinces.


The $1.8 million job includes manufacturing the main hanger shell with a structural support system that will have the largest truss that Garco Building Systems has built, says Lee Stanton, the companys district sales manager for British Columbia and Alberta.


Were assembling the truss in our plant and then disassembling it and shipping it over, he says.


Garco Building Systems manufacturing plant is on Garfield Road, in Airway Heights.


Stanton says the steel truss will be 170 feet long, 23.5 feet high, will weigh 80 tons, and will form the ridgeline of the roof of the building.


It was designed so the 44-foot-high structure would not require internal support columns, enabling it to house several aircraft up to the size of a Boeing 737, Stanton says.


The hangar also will include a two-story office wing with about 25,000 square feet of floor space.


Scott Construction Group, of Vancouver, will assemble the hangar. DGBK Architects, of Vancouver, designed the hangar.


The project is expected to be completed in October.


Garco Building Systems, which was founded in 1958, manufactures and distributes steel building systems primarily in the Northwest and in western Canada. NCI Building Systems, which owns several companies that manufacture metal buildings and their components, bought Garco Building Systems last year.


Contact Mike McLean at (509) 344-1266 or via e-mail at mikem@spokanejournal.com.