THE ROUND ABOUT

Mass Timber Building

Location

Unbuilt - North Tonawanda, NY

Team

Solo Project

The Boat House is a Museum, Boat Workshop, and Cafe that revitalizes the shoreline of North Tonawanda, NY. Tasked with pulling themes from a boat build project, I used curving ramps as a parti.

Designer Visualizer

Told to create spaces for a museum, workshop, and cafe using a primary language of wood and mass timber, I employed two ramps that facilitate views over the Erie canal. The slats of the windows change as the visitor progresses, opening at a wide vista over the water.

Prompt Organization

Due to the building’s location on site, different clientele will typically approach one side over the other. Therefore the workshop is oriented towards the boat yard and the cafe towards the street front.

A terraced landscape creates a promenade overflowing with plant life. The roof also employs varied window heights which creates wonderful indirect lighting for the museum. Which feels as though it is a final destination.

The idea for an esoteric waterway that winds through the site came from visiting the silos in Buffalo. While kayaking we found a way underneath the docks, and once past the squeeze, it opened to an otherworldly cathedral. I aimed to emulate that compression and release in this building.