Dawson Metal Co., 825 Allen St., has been contracted to provide a variety of bronze custom entrances for the center.

Currently under construction, the museum, library and education project will commemorate the legacy of Barack Obama, the country’s 44th president.

In total, 55 exterior and interior doors will be custom built by Dawson at its local manufacturing plant.

Ashlee Fredrick, sales and marketing at Dawson, said the entrances will be on-site at the Obama Presidential Center early next year. Upon completion, the order will be shipped by truck from Jamestown to the job site in Chicago where they will be installed.

Obama Foundation via AP An artist rendering of the Obama Presidential Center.

Fredrick said the exterior fixtures will feature the company’s new “thermally broken seamless doors.”

As described on its website, thermally broken doors are used whenever there is a difference between indoor and outdoor temperatures. A thermal break is created when a material of low thermal conductivity is placed between the door’s conductive materials to stop energy transfer.

The thermal break acts as a barrier that reduces heat conduction through the door’s metal framing.

David Dawson, president and CEO of Dawson Metal, said the Jamestown company is “enthusiastic, not only about the contract for the Obama library, but for the essential contributions” local workers ultimately will make toward the historic project.

In a statement to The Post-Journal this week, Jeff Parks, Dawson’s chief operating officer, said, “The Dawson team was able to design a variety of thermal entrances that could meet specifications required and, in some cases, out-perform the specifications required. Our ‘Transcend’ Thermal Balanced Door will be the next breakthrough in the door manufacturing industry across the globe.”

Dawson has been a family-owned and operated business since 1946. The company says it is a leading manufacturer of high-quality metal fabrications and architectural products, serving a clientele in the United States and throughout the world.

According to the Obama Foundation, the Obama Presidential Center will be a “welcoming, vibrant campus where people from across the street or from around the globe can come to get inspired, find common ground, and take action.”

As reported by the New York Times, Obama decided against a publicly-accessible presidential museum and library traditionally operated by the National Archives and Records Administration. Instead, the former president opted for a privately-operated center that will receive some artifacts on loan from the archives.

Jamestown is certainly no stranger to manufacturing products with ties to the national government. In the 1950s, the Jamestown-Royal Upholstery Corp. produced a French Provincial style chair for Mamie Eisenhower, wife of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, to be kept at the White House.

“The chair was selected from the firm’s line of chairs by the Republican Women’s Club of the city of Philadelphia and was presented to Mrs. Eisenhower by that organization two weeks ago,” a June 1953 article in The Post-Journal stated.

Decades earlier, Jamestown-Royal was selected to build nine leather chairs for U.S. Supreme Court justices. The order was placed during the construction of the U.S. Supreme Court building, which opened in 1935.

The same June 1953 article mentions the moment: “Producing furniture for the nation’s capital is not a new experience for Jamestown-Royal. The corporation made nine leather-covered chairs occupied by members of the United States Supreme Court. The firm also manufactures the Dewey Chair, a replica of which was presented to Senator Mike Monroney of Oklahoma at the time of his appearance here for the annual meeting of the Chamber of Commerce in May.”