ISC History and Purpose

After 34 years of experience working within the construction industry, more specifically in structural steel fabrication for buildings, bridges, and industrial applications, John Goodwin took the opportunity to pool his expertise with others of like experience to start Interstate Steel Corporation (ISC) in late 1992. ISC began as a very small and limited fabricator in Knoxville, Tennessee. ISC’s very first order was of a design/build nature converting a gymnasium structure into a “Family Life Center” for a local church. ISC experienced a steady growth exceeding 35% per year and by 1997 was capable of producing projects in size of up to one million dollars of structural and miscellaneous framing.

What makes ISC stand out from many fabricators of this type is the ability of its heavily experienced staff to resolve “unworkable” problems in design and construction both efficiently and effectively. ISC fields many inquiries and serves as consultant to architects and structural engineers, providing sound judgment and expertise in certain areas of design criteria.

After 17 years of these operations, the global economic circumstances of 2009 have vastly diminished the demand for new buildings of many types, such as multilevel office complexes and retail sales outlet centers. This has provided ISC with a long awaited opportunity to not only expand its services to building contractors, but also to work directly with individual industrial and manufacturing plants, supplying a broad range of fabricated aids to their ever changing methods of operations.

ISC has consistently enjoyed a reputation of accurate fabrication, excellent workmanship and the ability to work clearly and competently with the blue collar worker on the floor and through the chain of command up to the Management and CEO of an industry, as may be required in achieving the objective of service to that industry.

ISC was actually founded by Mr. Goodwin and his son Brad Goodwin, who had been a businessman in the Knoxville area for many years. ISC was shocked and saddened by the loss of Brad when he died of cancer August 22, 2003.