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 clipper jets 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.

“The door is everything I had hoped for,” Pavlinovic says. “It works beautifully. I absolutely love it and the features are great.”

Another benefit of the Schweiss bifold door is the way it opens, lifting straight up and folding in half, instead of swinging out to the front of the building when it opens. This allows for more space in front of the hangar where vehicles and planes can be parked safely, even if the hangar door starts to open.

“You don’t need this huge space in front of the bifold door,” Pavlinovic says. “You’re not accidentally lifting cars or especially planes. That would be bad.”

Bormann says some people involved in the hangar project were surprised by the appearance of the Schweiss bifold door because it uses liftstraps instead of steel cables to operate the door. Bormann was somewhat familiar with such technology, as it is a bit more common in Europe to use straps as opposed to cables. Each Schweiss Doors bifold door has designed and patented 3-inch polyester liftstraps rated to lift 29,000 pounds. A ¼-inch cable door is rated to only 7,200 pounds.

“They are amazed that you just have fabric, the liftstraps,” Bormann says. “Straps are lighter, don’t rust and are very, very strong.”

HBHansen of Lynden, WA, served as the general contractor for the project and installed the Schweiss Doors bifold. Bormann says it all went very well. He was onsite when it was delivered. When he returned to the jobsite a few days later the door was installed and most of the work had been completed.

“Good planning and coordination with the steel manufacturer, the contractor and Schweiss Doors was essential,” Bormann says. “After that, everything went smoothly.”

Bormann says he learned a lot during the process of ordering and installing the hangar door, adding the Schweiss Doors team was always happy to help.

“Everything worked smoothly, wonderfully,” he says. “The service was excellent, very responsive. If I sent an email late at night, next morning, when I woke up and looked at my inbox, the response from Schweiss Doors was already there. That was extremely helpful.”

Both Bormann and Pavlinovic say they would recommend Schweiss Doors to anyone looking for a high-quality bifold door. For Bormann, this may be his first airplane hangar project, but it won’t be his last. He is already working on another project at the same airpark and the hangar will have a door from Schweiss.

“It was a very good experience, working with Schweiss, very professional,” Bormann says.

Pavlinovic has already been sharing his hangar building experience with others going through the process.

“I’m like, you’ve got to have a Schweiss door,” he says. “There is no other option.”