January 2014
| Business World Magazine | 59
opposed to conventional applications
involving studs. After implanted in the
ground or surface-mounted to a founda-
tion, columns support additions in truss-
es and framing components that include
wall girts, roof purlins and more. As an
engineered building system, this modality
has proven to provide greater
savings in costs, greater en-
ergy efficiency and greater
convenience than traditional
building methods, but with-
out forcing compromises in
terms of quality or aesthet-
ic allure. This is has been
demonstrated time and time
again through the building of
churches, high-end homes,
centers of commerce and a
range of municipal infrastruc-
ture, in examples so seeming-
ly singular in structural and
architectural design that one
would never venture to guess
such examples are a reflec-
tion of the building practices
behind a pole barn. “I think
we’re one of the best kept se-
crets in construction,” says
Dan Nyberg of Morton Build-
ing Company in Morton, Illinois, a more
than century-old, family-owned company
whose expertise and operational excep-
tionality has certainly contributed to this
building model’s transition from agricul-
tural or farm-based applications to that of
more residential and urban settings.Yet, as
