Big Ass Fans Company moves into new facility

It’s official. The quirky folks at the Big Ass Fans Company have moved to a new production and office facility. What does a company with a name like Big Ass Fans do exactly? Well, they make big ass fans, literally. More accurately they make 6-foot-diameter to 24-foot-diameter ceiling fans. Those industrial grade behemoths and the people who manufacture, market and sell them needed more space, in a big way.

Big Ass Fans’ new digs consist of 98,000 square feet of remodeled office and production space off Leestown Road in Lexington, Ky. The new facility is nearly three times the size of the company’s old headquarters on Lexington’s Winchester Road. The new building is already making a big impression on the staff and the community.

“The new building gives us a chance to put up a bigger, more offensive-to-the-public-at-large sign. That’s what we are all about,” said Carey Smith, the president and owner of the company who is often referred to as the Chief Big Ass.

The public at-large has responded in kind. A member of the church whose grounds are adjacent to the new Big Ass headquarters had this to say, “What a disgusting name for a company. I am offended.”

Lexington has grown somewhat used to its non-PC resident, though. The new building signage was more mildly received. Upon painting a 10-foot-tall mural of the company’s name and donkey mascot on the Winchester Road side of their old building, an outcry arose among city council members and passersby alike. After some tense hours of picketing across the street by outraged Lexingtonians and a few dozen donuts and cups of coffee delivered by the Big Ass staffers, the protesters finally relented.

The new inner sanctum of all things Big Ass Fans is a surprisingly sophisticated space. The office space is a glass-walled contemporary open floor plan. Four of the company’s own Big Ass Fans spin slowly overhead. In the lobby area, a dissected fan has become a piece of wall art. The copy/mail room and an additional conference room featuring state-of-the-art equipment are housed in amoeba-shaped “pods.”

A brash exterior with a thoughtful inside? That would be a pretty safe description of the Big Ass Fan Company. To find out more about Big Ass Fans, you can visit the company’s Web site at www.bigassfans.com.