HECTOR, MINN. – Flight always enthralled Lawrence Pavlinovic. His grandfather was a merchant mariner, and his father worked for Pan American Airways (Pan Am), passing along a love of adventure.
“Flying clippers around the world is kind of that seafaring adventure transferred over to aviation,” Pavlinovic says.
Today, Pavlinovic is a captain with Alaska Airlines, flying 737s across the United States, Canada and to sunny ports of call in Central America. Even on his off hours, Pavlinovic lives and breathes aviation. He owns a Republic Seabee and a Globe Swift. For the last few years, he’s called an airpark in northwest Washington state his home. In this unique residential development, homes share space with a small airport. Residents and their guests can taxi planes directly to the runway from their homes.
“It was always a dream, to live in an airpark,” Pavlinovic says. “It is a wonderful community.”
Pavlinovic and his wife fell in love with the airpark lifestyle. They eventually purchased a parcel at Frontier Airpark, but the property was missing one very important feature – a hangar. Pavlinovic started the process of rectifying that issue, walking the length and the breadth of the park, talking to residents about their hangars, gathering advice and ideas.
“I wanted the biggest possible hangar I could build and afford,” he says.
To design the hangar, Pavlinovic hired Thomas Bormann, Principal of Bormann International Inc. in Seattle. An architect with over 35 years of experience in both Germany and the United States, Bormann has done a variety of projects, designing all sorts of buildings, including high-end residences, multi-family homes and commercial buildings, as well as several specialty projects like retail, equestrian and security. Pavlinovic offered a new opportunity.
“This was my first hangar,” Bormann says. “Number one.”
Pavlinovic and Bormann worked together closely to design the hangar, using the feedback Pavlinovic gathered during his conversations with fellow aviators in the airpark. When it came to choosing the hangar door, one name was brought up again and again – Schweiss Doors. As a pilot, Pavlinovic had come across Schweiss Doors many times and learned even more during his own hangar project.
“Walking around, talking to neighbors; that was what cemented it,” Pavlinovic says of specifying Schweiss Doors for his hangar.
Pavlinovic and Bormann selected a Schweiss Doors liftstrap bifold door. The door measures 55 feet wide by 21 feet tall, clad in dark gray metal siding with seven windows. The door features the Schweiss automatic strap latch system and an emergency backup hand crank. The metal crank can be attached to the top of the electric door motor, which allows the door to be manually opened or closed if there is a power outage. A disconnect device prevents the motor from operating when the hand crank is being used.
HBHansen of Lynden, Wash., served as the general contractor for the project and installed the Schweiss Doors bifold (www.bifold.com).