Salt Lake City: Livability in the 21st Century

SME Steel has completed many notable projects over the
years, including: the 505,000 square foot Smith Center for
the Performing Arts in Las Vegas; the 498,000 square foot,
USGBC LEED Silver-certified San Diego Public Library,
characterized by a three story steel dome housing a reading
room for the nine story children’s library; AT&T Park, home
of Major League Baseball’s San Francisco Giants, showcasing
an incredible 42,000 seat stadium with a total project cost
of $357 million; Disneyland California Adventure Park’s
“Cars Land,” a twelve acre theme park representing the
largest portion of Disneyland’s recent $1 billion expansion.
“Cars Land” is the largest attraction in Disneyland or
Disneyworld—exceeding the Matterhorn and Splash
Mountain; CityCenter, Las Vegas, a sixty-seven acre
multiuse community comprised of hotels, casinos,
condominiums, retail space, and entertainment space with
SME Steel providing 78,000 tons of steel creating the most
expensive privately owned construction project in U.S.
history; and Levi’s Stadium, home of the San Francisco
49ers NFL team, is the first NFL stadium to incorporate
buckling restrained braces—526 CoreBrace BRBs in total.
SME Steel’s multi-division operation is headed
up by Wayne Searle, CEO, who began his career
with SME eighteen years ago in structural steel
detailing. Prior to ascending to this current post,
Searle served the company in various leadership
capacities—including SME Steel president for four
years. His thirty-four year tenure in the structural
steel construction industry includes experience
in shop manufacturing, field installation, drafting,
detailing, engineering, project management,
contracts, estimating, sales supervision, and
administration. Craig Moyes, co-founder of SME,
passed the mantle to Searle at SME’s twentieth
anniversary celebration on April 20, 2012. Moyes,
along with co-founder and majority shareholder Jerry
Moyes, remains on the SME Board of Directors. Both Moyes
are actively and vitally involved in the company’s strategic
planning and international endeavors.
Since it was founded in 1992, SME has enjoyed
steady bottom line financial growth. To what does
SME Steel’s CEO Searle attribute to his company’s success?
“The people,” Searle says. “We use the same steel and
offer the same price as our competitors but it’s our staff
that makes the difference. I am very lucky to work with
more than one thousand creative, highly-professional
people who are very good at what they do.”
Looking to the future, Searle hopes to expand the SME
Steel brand, services, and expertise both nationally and
internationally. “We’d like to expand our reach across the
entire country and are exploring the possibility of opening
new plants in several areas, including collaborating with our
partner company in South America to create CoreBrace
products there,” Searle says.
For more information about SME Steel and its divisions,
please visit www.smesteel.com.
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Left: CoreBrace is a proven, innovative buckling-restrained bracing
system (BRBs) designed to allow buildings to withstand seismic events.
The Levi’s Stadium, home of San Francisco 49ers NFL team,
has incorporated 526 CoreBrace BRBs in its facility.
Below: SME Steel has completed distinctive edifices throughout the
Western United States, including the San Diego Public Library’s iconic dome.
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