Western Partitions Inc.

Western Partitions Inc. (WPI) has become one of the largest and most reputable interior/exterior contracting firms in the Northwest. The family-owned and -operated company maintains the same hard work ethic and can-do attitude today as when Mike and Pam Roach founded WPI in 1972.

What began as a straightforward interior-exterior contracting company evolved into a full-service operation equipped with an enthusiastic team of professionals who take pride in going the extra mile to deliver an end product worthy of the WPI seal of approval. The team works together to ensure complete safety on every jobsite with an unparalleled level of transparency to form the basis of a long-term relationship with every client.

“We celebrate our 40-year anniversary in 2012 and we’re proud to still be a family-owned and -operated company,” says Victor Roach, president of WPI. Victor has officially been an employee of WPI for over 23 years. Victor now oversees operations with the help of his sister, Angela, whose tenure at WPI is over 28 years and counting. WPI is headquartered in Tigard, Ore., with additional locations in Eugene, Ore., and Sumner and Spokane, Wash., to meet the needs of clients across the Northwest.

More often than not the WPI team will work in the surrounding areas of its offices, but the company has traveled as far as California, North Carolina, Idaho, Alaska and Hawaii, and has even been active internationally for clients. The company provides all of the standard services in a metal stud framing and drywall package; the team is also highly skilled with handling fireproofing, plaster, insulations, fire stopping, access flooring, acoustical ceilings, rough carpentry, weather barriers, as well as doors, frames, hardware and painting. “For the moment our painting services are limited to the Eugene area, but we’re hoping to expand it to our other offices over the next few years,” clarifies Victor.

Making a Bold Impression

WPI has been busy over the past few years despite the economic downturn. “We’ve been retooling all of our operations recently to figure out where we can make improvements on the bidding side straight through to project management and all field operations to become more efficient without sacrificing the quality of our work,” adds Victor.

Keeping to exacting standards is at the core of operations. After all, WPI’s reputation has fueled the company’s growth through four decades, as the team believes that every project can lead to further opportunities down the road. The company’s esteemed reputation directly correlates with the team’s strong desire to reach every client’s individual needs.

WPI completed work on Jen-Weld Stadium, the historic soccer stadium that is home to both the Major League Soccer Portland Timbers and Portland State University’s Vikings football team in Portland, Ore. The stadium was originally built in 1926, but by 2010 the stadium tapped Turner Construction to oversee a $31 million overhaul. WPI was proud to be chosen to provide the team’s expertise in fireproofing, interior and exterior sheathing and framing, insulation, caulking, plaster finishing, acoustical ceilings, wood siding and the installation of fiberglass reinforced panels.

“We had previously helped on more minor renovations a few years before, and it’s definitely a landmark for the city of Portland,” says Victor.

Just around the time that the company was wrapping up work on the Jen-Weld Stadium, the WPI team was racing to finish work on the athlete housing village for the 2011 All Africa Games in Maputo, Mozambique. The games were originally scheduled to take place in Zambia’s capital city of Lusaka, but the country withdrew its bid in 2008 due to lack of funding. WPI provided its expertise to help train a diverse labor force in the proper application of plaster to build 27 four-story buildings that would provide over 848 apartments to house over 6,500 athletes from over 48 countries.

“We came onto the project in a consulting capacity to train a very diverse work force from as far away as China and Portugal,” expands Victor. The team worked with many different nationalities, requiring interpreters, and the team also had to learn how to communicate visually in many cases. “Our team loved the unique experience and was able to tour a large portion of the countryside,” he continues. “It may not have been our largest project, but it was certainly one of our most interesting.”

Always Evolving

And 2011 turned out to be a very interesting year for WPI. The team provided its services in the construction of data centers in Oregon and North Carolina for one of the fastest-growing social media companies in the country: Facebook. The team was also called to work in the northernmost city in the U.S. – Barrow, Alaska – on the Samuel Simmonds Memorial Hospital, which is now the primary healthcare facility in the North Slope region. Also in 2011, WPI began work at the Intel D1X project in Oregon, which is reported to be the largest private construction project in the U.S. to date, with a total on-site construction force of up to 5,000 workers.

WPI also began work for the new state-of-the-art U.S. Naval Hospital in Guam in 2012, which is expected to open in 2014. Even though WPI has had to shift gears in recent years to weather the economic climate, the WPI family believes that growth could be just around the corner. “If the economy rebounds, we will hopefully begin expanding once again, not right away with additional offices, but with additional specialties that could expand our market share,” opines Victor.

Only time will tell which specialties will emerge to further reinforce WPI’s renowned efforts, but the company’s track record is proof enough that WPI takes pride in rising to any challenge. With the help of the immediate Roach and extended WPI families, Western Partitions Inc. will continue to build trust with clients by keeping high expectations and working even harder.