Dining in the Round
Sugarbush is a large ski resort in Warren, Vermont. With 80 percent of its clients coming from out of state, people need a place to stay. When the developers at Summit Ventures contacted Lemay and Youkel Architects, they knew they wanted their new lodge and accompanying restaurant to consist of a series of barn-style buildings. The architects created the lodge to look like three very traditional barns joined together into one U-shaped structure.
While it was designed to look like a barn, the restaurant was quite a different affair from the lodge. Intended to mimic the circular barns sometimes found in Vermont, the plans called for a 90 foot diameter and the capacity to seat 250 people. Clearly this would be a challenge to build.
Once it was determined that they wanted the restaurant to be crafted of heavy timbers, Lemay and Youkel contacted Bensonwood to design, engineer, and assemble the frame, as well as the panels that would eventually surround the structure.
Circular Thinking
“The architects came to us with the requirements for an 18-sided building: an octo-decagon,” said Dennis Marcom of Bensonwood. “They specified an inner circumference of 9 posts for roof support, but wanted us to maintain the 18-sided exterior. The challenge for our engineers was to determine the best way to support the rafters, the roof, and the snow loads.”
At the top of each of the 18 double-posts, a laminated Douglas fir timber passes through in a three plate, double-shear connection. Each rafter timber reaches more than 20 feet to the inner circumference created by the 9 interior posts. Each bent of the inner circumference supports the exterior rafters, as well as the interior rafters which span the remaining 25 feet to the center of the building. “This gave the building the roof support it needed, while keeping the room open to maximize the space inside,” Dennis said.
A circular building is much like a barrel. To keep the barrel staves from splaying outward, steel hoops surround the barrel. This same outward force was in effect with the restaurant structure. To counteract this force, Bensonwood devised 27 steel tensioning bands mounted horizontally to the outside of each post. The ends of each tensioning band were mortised into the connecting girts that span the distance between the posts. Using the bands to join the connecting girts transfers tension from girt to girt, and creates the same effect a large steel hoop would have, drawing the circumference toward the center.
“The forces at the center of the roof where the 18 timbers came together also required some creative engineering,” Dennis explained. To give each roof timber a secure place to rest, Bensonwood crafted a large donut-shaped compression ring laminated from more than 200 pieces of engineered lumber. Each of the pieces in the ring were machined to very fine tolerances using a computer-controlled (CNC) mill to ensure a perfect fit.
Raising Day
“Bensonwood brought 10 fully-loaded semi trucks to the site with the entire frame and all the panels,” said Mike Yandow, from Pizzagalli Construction, the general contractor for the development. He expressed amazement at how quickly the frame and panels were assembled by the Bensonwood team. “In 14 working days it went from a pie-shaped foundation to the gem of the valley!” Mike exclaimed. “No one around Warren had ever seen any thing like this,” he said. “We had people coming from everywhere just to watch.”
The restaurant takes its name from the frame of the unique circular structure; “Timbers” opened its doors December 15th, 2006 and is open year round, seven days a week.
Architect: LeMay and Youkel
Builder: Pizzagalli Construction