Zahner

Zahner Company has pioneered the architectural metal industry by applying aerospace engineering to the fabrication of art and architecture. Zahner is internationally renowned for intelligent engineering and precision craftsmanship on buildings throughout the world.

History Since 1897 and across four generations, the family-owned business of A.

Zahner Company produced highly crafted architectural metalwork for artists and architects around the globe. Throughout the company's history, employees at Zahner have developed advanced metal surfaces and systems for both functional and ornamental architectural forms.

FOUNDING OF THE COMPANY

The company was founded in 1897 by Andrew Zahner.

The grandson of Swiss-German ancestry, his family emigrated to America in the late 1850s. They arrived in New Orleans and traveled north to Louisville, Kentucky and eventually purchased a small farmstead in southern Indiana. Andrew Zahner was born here in 1871. A few years later, his father Maximillian purchased a farm in Shawnee, Kansas and moved his family again to the Kansas City greater area. As a young man, Andrew Zahner would begin his career in the late 1880s by traveling south to the industrial city of Joplin, Missouri. At the time, Joplin was a boom town, experiencing significant growth from the zinc and lead mines in the area.

For many years during the late 19th century, Joplin was considered the zinc and lead capital of the world. It was there that Andrew started his first company, Eagle Cornice Works. He began working on metal cornices on significant buildings in the booming towns of western Missouri and eastern Kansas. Metal was the ‘new’ material of choice for prestigious buildings of these small towns. Cornices were the decorative