Clamshelters Are Building Blocks in Kobe Quake Relief

Clamshell Buildings Inc., a Ventura firm whose movable structures played important roles in Operation Desert Storm and relief efforts following numerous natural disasters, is back in the middle of a high-profile situation.

The company is working with the Japanese government to install Clamshell’s aluminum-supported fabric structures in earthquake-stricken Kobe and nearby Osaka. Two of the buildings, called Clamshelters, have already been erected in Kobe as warehouses for relief supplies, reports Sandford T. Waddell, Clamshell’s president and chief executive.

He says additional structures are on the way to both Kobe and Osaka. The latter city is being used as a staging area for the massive relief effort in Kobe.

“We’re talking to the Japanese about increasing our involvement,” Waddell said. “In addition to our trade representative, we have a technician on the scene to show crews how to install the buildings.”

Thus far, Clamshell is shipping relatively small units--about 2,000 square feet each--to the earthquake site. “We’ve built much larger warehouses elsewhere in Japan,” noted Mark Alexander, Clamshell’s director of marketing. “I’m not sure why they’ve asked for smaller structures in Kobe.”

The Japanese project is one of several that is helping Clamshell pull out of a slump that hit the company about a year ago. The comeback started with an order for a 36,000-square-foot, two-building complex that was used as a temporary site by the Broadway department store at Northridge Fashion Center. The complex was dismantled recently when the refurbished store reopened.

Among other recent projects, Clamshell is creating a 200,000-square-foot complex for the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers in West Virginia. The firm recently completed two hangars for the Massachusetts Air National Guard, and will soon install a Clamshelter warehouse at the Anheuser-Busch brewery in Van Nuys, Alexander reported.

Several of the company’s movable buildings have been used to store equipment during large environmental cleanups, he added.

However, Clamshell gained its greatest notoriety in 1991 when it took only a few days to supply 144 helicopter hangars for U. S. forces engaged in Operation Desert Storm.

Privately held Clamshell doesn’t disclose its revenues, but sources say sales range between $10 million and $20 million annually. The company has only 25 employees and supplements its small staff by hiring on-scene crews for most of its installment projects.

“Our major markets have narrowed down to environmental agencies, the military and disaster relief,” Waddell said. “Sad to say, when there’s a major disaster such as Hurricane Andrew or the Kobe earthquake, we’re pretty sure to be getting new orders for Clamshelters.”