Our Company History

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unter Buildings strives to diligently serve the refining and petrochemical community by enhancing productivity and occupational safety through the reliable manufacturing of superior-quality blast-resistant modular buildings.

In 1995, the American Petroleum Institute (API) formally established safety recommendations in response to hazards relating to, among other things, the placement of work shelters in or near known “blast zones.” Their concerns were two-fold, focusing not only on the building site but also the actual building’s potential to withstand blast trauma. At the time, wood-framed construction (such as a traditional trailer) was popular because of the ease in placing the structures (and workers) near the work area and later relocating them, typically for temporary projects. However, because of specific incidents of collapse and resulting injury/death to the occupants, the API imposed a requirement (API RP 752) to move all wood-framed trailers out of the blast zones. While this naturally reduced the hazard potential, it impacted production by moving the workers away from the work area.

Our Company was conceived in 1999 from a singular goal of designing and marketing a superior building to replace wood-frame construction altogether. The use of “modular blast buildings” already was well-established on offshore platforms for longterm employee housing, but the concept was new to the refining and petrochemical industry. We knew our buildings would require unprecedented, custom design to meet intense safety and “blast” specifications. Such a quality product would be arguably more expensive than wood-frame trailers to rent or purchase, but we believed that the value of having employees safely in close proximity to the work area would far surpass the additional costs to the refining and petrochemical companies.

To design and certify our buildings for blast resistance, Hunter invested in a substantial, lengthy engineering endeavor, retaining the services of ABS Consulting, a widely-recognized and respected blast specialty firm. We also strategically targeted the largest energy company in the world and a leader in safety, ExxonMobil, as our first customer. They took a significant interest in our product, going so far as to coordinate a multi-disciplined team of ExxonMobil representatives to work with Hunter at length in developing a unique specification for all aspects of the building design (electrical, paint, structural, plumbing, communications, safety, etc). Simultaneously, ExxonMobil structural engineers required that we exhaustively review and demonstrate all blast design aspects of our building.

Upon completion, ExxonMobil established a safety standard banning wood-frame trailers and requiring the use of “modular blast units” in blast areas. In 2000, Hunter became the first company to market, construct, and sell modular blast buildings to the industry. Since then, we have produced nearly 500 buildings for over 40 customers in North America, Europe, Africa, Australia, and Asia. Hunter employs over 100 dedicated individuals in Houston, working scheduled shifts in a 80,000 square foot facility, to produce in excess of 30 buildings a month. We have since acquired land adjacent to our current property to construct a second, state-of-the-art manufacturing facility.

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