Way back in January...

A bit of catch-up. Last January the Friday sketchers met at the Nucor Steel Plant just beneath the west Seattle Bridge. I had crossed the bridge many times but never really thought much about the industries beneath my tires. It was a beautiful crispy sunny day in Seattle and I met the group in the Nucor front office. We donned our safety vests and goggles and set off for the plant.

 

Having grown up on the south side of Chicago, the daughter of a steel family, the terminology was familiar but I’d never attached concrete objects to the words- blast furnace, steel rods, drop a load. The steel mills reigned as the king on the south side. My grandfather started his career in the mailroom of US steel in Pennslyvania. He took correspondence courses to earn an engineering degree and went on to become an executive in the company. My uncles worked for the steel industry; my dad worked as an engineer in steel-related industry; my cousins worked in the mills as a summer job. It was just in our family blood. Walking through the plant I felt like I was walking through my family history. I was entranced.

We had only a few designated spots where we could sketch. The control room was one. You had a full view of the electric-arc furnace, Nucor’s version of the blast furnace. And when they delivered the charge of scrap steel into the vat the blast of heat and fireball was breathtaking.

The next place we stopped was the yard where the scrap metal, a combination of crushed cars, old appliances, recycled rebar- anything that sticks to a magnet is picked up by giant magnets and moved to the melt shop where the electric furnaces melt it down.

 

We also got a quick walk through the rest of the plant to see more of the process and the resulting steel rods, trucks, warehouses and workers. 

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I came away with a new appreciation of the industry and fascinated with the way Nucor has become one of the state’s biggest recyclers. Thanks to Dave Sommers and Tina Koyama for setting up the outing.

Nucor Steel Plant

1/27/17 Giant magnets release scrap metal into a huge bin.

Whenever I’ve visited West Seattle, I’ve wondered about those smokestacks visible from the bridge and the large industrial facility attached to them. It turns out that the facility is the Nucor Steel plant, and this morning Urban Sketchers Seattle had the good fortune to sketch inside it.

1/27/17 Sketchers overlooking the scrap yard.

Normally the facility is open to the public through two-hour guided walking tours that make only brief stops at each location. Working with Nucor environmental engineer Sean Wilson, we arranged a special tour for USk Seattle that would allow us enough time to sketch in a couple of places within the plant. In addition, visitors are not usually allowed to bring bags into the plant, but that restriction was waived for us so that we could bring our sketch gear.

Built in 1904, the mill produces more than a million tons of steel a year, mostly in the form of rebar. A large portion of the raw material for that steel is scrap metal from old cars, and that’s the production area where we spent the most time sketching. Overlooking the scrap yard, we could watch huge magnets lift heaps from the mountains of scrap metal and release them into a giant bin.

1/27/17 Fiery arc furnace awaiting its next "drop."

The most exciting part of our sketch tour was the viewing area for the arc furnace, where that giant bin of scrap metal “drops” its load into a steaming, flaming fire pit. The whole room shook like a mild earthquake! The flames erupted like a volcano too bright to watch except through the protective tinted windows. We got to witness the “drop” twice during the 45 minutes or so that we sketched there!

I had difficulty capturing the scenes we had the opportunity to sketch, but my sketchbook serves as a reminder of the fascinating process we observed. (Photography and video are not allowed inside the plant. It felt strange not to take trophy shots to share!)

Many thanks to Sean at Nucor for the tour and the special accommodations USk Seattle received! 

1/27/17 Sketchers watching the furnace.

I drive past this steel mill five or six times a week, thinking it would make an interesting place to sketch. Somehow, I never pulled over and stopped until this past weekend.

Some newcomers to West Seattle may not be charmed when they realize one of their near neighbors is a steel mill, even if it is a green, energy efficient recycler. The Nucor Steel Mill seems like an anomaly in what is now a residential area. But it has been there, wedged between the Dwamish river and the Port of Seattle, since 1904. Many of the houses in the area were originally built for the mill employees in the early 1900's.

On my way back to my car I had to cross under the West Seattle Bridge, and I decided the view from beneath the ramps was worth a sketch as well. The wind and chilly temps kept me from getting carried away with detail.