Remembering 9/11 On the 20th anniversary of the World Trade Center Attacks, SMACNA and SMART are honored to partner on helping America heal.
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By / Sheralyn Belyeu Like millions of Americans, L. William Zahner, president of SMACNA-Kansas City member A. Zahner, knows exactly where he was during the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center towers. “I was in Kansas City, Missouri, meeting with an architect about the Bridge of Glass project in Tacoma, Washington,” Zahner says. Greg Chastain, business manager at Local 2, was also in Kansas City. “I was an apprentice instructor for our JATC, and I came out to make some copies at the office,” he says. “We turned on the TV after the first plane hit, and I was watching when the first tower fell.” Mark Stewart, a Local 2 journeyman sheet metal worker with Zahner, was in a Kansas City sheet metal shop when the first plane crashed. He called his wife and was talking with her when the second plane hit. “It was a surreal day, very weird, very solemn,” Stewart says. “When we went outside after work, there were no airplanes overhead, not even near the airport.” It’s fitting that these three men were hard at work in the Kansas City sheet metal industry when the attack happened because Kansas City sheet metal played a unique role in honoring the lives lost that day. A. Zahner and Local 2 craftspersons produced the metal skin that sheathes the National September 11 Memorial Museum on the site of the former World Trade Center. “We’re very proud of the fact that our contractor was selected to work on such an important project,” Chastain says. “The September 11 Memorial helps bring healing to our country, and it’s humbling that Local 2 is a part of that healing.” One might assume that a project as symbolic as the September 11 Memorial Museum would automatically go to a United States firm. In reality, the New York City construction market pulls in professionals from around the planet. Rivalry for the contract was fierce because of the project’s design and noteriety. But international competition does not intimidate Zahner. “There are fingerprints of Local 2 team members on projects all over the world,” says Chastain. “The members who work at Zahner are some of the most highly skilled in the country.”
