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Weather Shelter, City Dog Park, Moscow Idaho
Over the last few years, the third year architecture studio taught by professor Robert Barnstone at Washington State University has been working with various community partners at the regional, state and at international scale through the outreach program at the university, The Centers for Civic Engagement. The spring terms project was to design and build a weather shelter for the Humane Society in Moscow, ID. The Humane Society had started the process of raising the necessary funds needed to install a structure deigned by the studio at their dog park for people to use as a nice place to gather, a pavilion for poor weather, to provide a convenient protected area for handicapped dog owners and furthermore to divide the park landscape into separate quadrants . Studio 303 to developed a number of different design proposals for the shelter. This process began with students working together in groups to put together a number of preliminary design proposals. These designs went through a series of critique sessions attended by members of the Humane Society. Their feedback was mediated by Scott Smith, the Societies acting president and Professor Barnstone. The students made a number of improvements to their designs followed by further critique sessions. Toward the end of the semester, a number of the students took the best aspects of their projects and combined them into a single design that held the best ideas from the separate proposals. The final design was collectively approved by all involved parties which included the City of Moscow, the Humane Society, and the Park Committees. In order to have an adequate amount of time to build the shelter, a summer design/build class was given in order to finalize the design details and implement the construction of the project.
The design that Studio 303 ultimately developed would utilize a simple structural system made of GluLam beams and tubular steel posts. A minimal screen of glass surrounded by seating was developed to allow the patrons to view the park on all sides and complete the plan of the pavilion. More importantly, the final design included many interesting elements from each of the student’s proposals; some of the contributions were spatially conceptual while others were formal. A structural framing idea was favored in one project and took the form of four long GluLam beams supported on a matrix of black columns fabricated from steel tubing and bearing plate connectors. This system allowed for the integration of a skylight idea from one of the early design proposals. The skylight passes through the center of the roof and wraps down the end wall. This glass window is nearly thirty feet long and is supported on two GluLam beams that extend nearly the entire length of the structure. Adding the extensive skylight to the roof of the shelter allowed for the sky to naturally fill the space. From a another project, the structural idea of a couple of corner shear walls to enclose one end of the pavilion allowed the roof to extend out and cantilever over the support columns without any additional diagonal bracing. Another project offered a centralized bench layout and became a bench that wrapped around a wall of blue-tinted glass. This provided protection from the wind and weather on either side of the shelter. A variety of other bench proposals also found their way into the final proposal. A single seat was placed in the middle of the shear wall centered under the vertical glass in the skylight. A taller platform was provided for those wishing to stand up in the shelter and was located on the cross-axis under the skylight. At the site, the shelter is placed close to a large tree and gestures out to the corner of the field so that people can view either side of the park from inside the park pavilion.
When the summer design/build class took over the project they would have to work out the details related to the connections and structural members followed by a materials estimate and subsequent order. All of the materials would have to be purchased using the specified budget of $5,000 with the exception of the large panes of blue-tinted, tempered glass that were donated to the school by Schweitzer Engineering in Pullman for use on projects like the shelter. Once the materials were delivered to the shop the construction process could begin. The first order of business was to fabricate the steel parts that would become the structural basis of the shelter. Some of those pieces would get cut in the machine shop while others, such as the beam pockets, would have to utilize the college’s water jet cutter in order to produce a more precise shape. Those beam pockets would require a student to use software to design the separate pieces that would be cut out of ¼” steel plate. Those pieces, along with the other steel parts would later be welded together by the students into their final layouts. Then, as an exercise in prefabrication, students fitted the steel structures to their respective wooden members at the school of architecture’s fabrication shop. After a few weeks of intense production the different pieces of the shelter were ready to be moved out to the Humane Society but first the site had to be prepared. Eventually, the early summer rains had slowed enough for the humane society to schedule the pouring of the concrete slab that would ultimately make up the floor of the structure. The class was present during the pour in order to set a number of steel plates within the concrete. With the plates in place the class could simply place each column on its respective plate, weld them in place, and make quick work of erecting the structure. The weeks of preparation at
the school shop left the class with a minimal amount of site work. The first day saw rise to the structural members while the second saw the completion of the roof. The rest of the finish work would fill up the final two weeks of the class. The installation of the glass walls would need to be done first before the benches could be set. Since the framework was already in place, this process took only a couple of hours. The benches would take a couple of days to place. Students first had to drill holes into the concrete slab for the legs of the benches to sit in. Then the holes around the legs were filled in with finishing cement in order to make them a permanent part of the shelter. Installing the skylight would turn out to take a few days to finish. In order for all the glass to precisely fit into the frame, the class made the decision to construct that part of the shelter on site so the right measurements could be assured. Lastly, the shear walls would be given their finish treatment of corrugated steel siding and aluminum angle-iron trim. By mid-July, all construction had come to an end with the project just slightly over budget. Many people instantly started using and enjoying the shelter and will continue to do so for many years to come.
The design that Studio 303 ultimately developed would utilize a simple structural system made of GluLam beams and tubular steel posts. A minimal screen of glass surrounded by seating was developed to allow the patrons to view the park on all sides and complete the plan of the pavilion. More importantly, the final design included many interesting elements from each of the student’s proposals; some of the contributions were spatially conceptual while others were formal. A structural framing idea was favored in one project and took the form of four long GluLam beams supported on a matrix of black columns fabricated from steel tubing and bearing plate connectors. This system allowed for the integration of a skylight idea from one of the early design proposals. The skylight passes through the center of the roof and wraps down the end wall. This glass window is nearly thirty feet long and is supported on two GluLam beams that extend nearly the entire length of the structure. Adding the extensive skylight to the roof of the shelter allowed for the sky to naturally fill the space. From a another project, the structural idea of a couple of corner shear walls to enclose one end of the pavilion allowed the roof to extend out and cantilever over the support columns without any additional diagonal bracing. Another project offered a centralized bench layout and became a bench that wrapped around a wall of blue-tinted glass. This provided protection from the wind and weather on either side of the shelter. A variety of other bench proposals also found their way into the final proposal. A single seat was placed in the middle of the shear wall centered under the vertical glass in the skylight. A taller platform was provided for those wishing to stand up in the shelter and was located on the cross-axis under the skylight. At the site, the shelter is placed close to a large tree and gestures out to the corner of the field so that people can view either side of the park from inside the park pavilion.
When the summer design/build class took over the project they would have to work out the details related to the connections and structural members followed by a materials estimate and subsequent order. All of the materials would have to be purchased using the specified budget of $5,000 with the exception of the large panes of blue-tinted, tempered glass that were donated to the school by Schweitzer Engineering in Pullman for use on projects like the shelter. Once the materials were delivered to the shop the construction process could begin. The first order of business was to fabricate the steel parts that would become the structural basis of the shelter. Some of those pieces would get cut in the machine shop while others, such as the beam pockets, would have to utilize the college’s water jet cutter in order to produce a more precise shape. Those beam pockets would require a student to use software to design the separate pieces that would be cut out of ¼” steel plate. Those pieces, along with the other steel parts would later be welded together by the students into their final layouts. Then, as an exercise in prefabrication, students fitted the steel structures to their respective wooden members at the school of architecture’s fabrication shop. After a few weeks of intense production the different pieces of the shelter were ready to be moved out to the Humane Society but first the site had to be prepared.
Eventually, the early summer rains had slowed enough for the humane society to schedule the pouring of the concrete slab that would ultimately make up the floor of the structure. The class was present during the pour in order to set a number of steel plates within the concrete. With the plates in place the class could simply place each column on its respective plate, weld them in place, and make quick work of erecting the structure. The weeks of preparation at the school shop left the class with a minimal amount of site work. The first day saw rise to the structural members while the second saw the completion of the roof. The rest of the finish work would fill up the final two weeks of the class. The installation of the glass walls would need to be done first before the benches could be set. Since the framework was already in place, this process took only a couple of hours. The benches would take a couple of days to place. Students first had to drill holes into the concrete slab for the legs of the benches to sit in. Then the holes around the legs were filled in with finishing cement in order to make them a permanent part of the shelter. Installing the skylight would turn out to take a few days to finish. In order for all the glass to precisely fit into the frame, the class made the decision to construct that part of the shelter on site so the right measurements could be assured. Lastly, the shear walls would be given their finish treatment of corrugated steel siding and aluminum angle-iron trim. By mid-July, all construction had come to an end with the project just slightly over budget. Many people instantly started using and enjoying the shelter and will continue to do so for many years to come.
