Hasta La Ideas

Chicago firm Studio Gang Architects has completed a boathouse on the northern bank of the Chicago River with a rhythmic roofline intended to capture the alternating motions of a rower’s arm movements (+ slideshow).

Located beside Clark Park in the north-west of the city, the WMS Boathouse provides a home for the Chicago Rowing Foundation. It is one of four boathouses proposed as part of a city-funded regeneration of the Chicago River, and the first of two designed by Studio Gang.

Structural roof trusses that alternate between M and upside-down V shapes give the building its jagged roof profile, which was conceptualised by tracing the time-lapse movements of rowing.

“The architecture is meant to visually capture the poetic rhythm and motion of rowing,” said Studio Gang principal Jeanne Gang, “but by providing a publicly accessible riverfront, it also reveals the larger movement toward an ecological and recreational revival of the Chicago River.”

The boathouse comprises two buildings positioned alongside one another. The first is a single-storey shed for storing rowing equipment, while the second is a two-storey structure containing offices, community facilities, a fitness suite and a rowing tank where teams can practice indoors.

The exterior of the building is clad with a mixture of slate tiles and zinc panels, which share the same silvery grey colouring.

Interior spaces are lined with timber, which also extends outside the building to wrap the inside of balconies and undersides of overhanging eaves.

South-facing clerestory windows extend up to the edge of the roof, bringing high levels of natural light through the building, but also helping to warm the interior in winter and allow natural ventilation during the summer.

Studio Gang’s second boathouse will be located on the south side of the river and is set to complete in 2015.

Read on for more information from Studio Gang Architects:

Studio Gang Architects completes WMS Boathouse at Clark Park

First of the two new boathouses along Chicago River designed and constructed by SGA state-of-the-art, 22,620-square-foot facility now open to the public

Studio Gang Architects (SGA) is pleased to announce the completion of the WMS Boathouse at Clark Park along the north branch of the Chicago River. Designed and built by SGA, the state-of-the-art facility opened to the public on October 19, 2013. It is located at 3400 North Rockwell Avenue on the northwest side of the City of Chicago.

The Clark Park facility is one of four boathouses proposed by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel as cornerstones of his riverfront revitalisation plan, anchoring the river’s future development. Emanuel’s initiative was spurred by the provision of nearly $1 million in grant funds by the United States Environmental Protection Agency to help clean up the river and drive job creation. Studio Gang was commissioned to realise two of the four boathouses, with the second facility to be located along the south branch of the Chicago River at 28th and Eleanor Streets. It is scheduled for completion in 2015.

The WMS Boathouse at Clark Park is currently home to the Chicago Rowing Foundation (CRF). In partnership with the Chicago Park District, the CRF offers a wide range of indoor and outdoor activities year-round, including learn-to-row sessions both in tanks and on the river, youth and masters team rowing, ergometer training, rowing-inspired yoga classes, and lessons tailored to individuals with disabilities.

As the City of Chicago works to transform the long-polluted and neglected Chicago River into its next recreational frontier, Studio Gang’s boathouse at Clark Park helps catalyse necessary momentum. “The architecture is meant to visually capture the poetic rhythm and motion of rowing,” said Jeanne Gang, Founder and Principal of Studio Gang Architects. “But by providing a publicly accessible riverfront, it also reveals the larger movement toward an ecological and recreational revival of the Chicago River.”

The boathouse’s design translates the time-lapse motion of rowing into an architectural roof form, providing visual interest while also offering spatial and environmental advantages that allow the boathouse to adapt to Chicago’s distinctive seasonal changes. With structural truss shapes alternating between an inverted “V” and an “M”, the roof achieves a rhythmic modulation that lets in southern light through the building’s upper clerestory. The clerestory glazing warms the floor slab of the structure in winter and ventilates in summer to minimise energy use throughout the year.

The 22,620-square-foot complex consists of a two-story mechanically heated and cooled training centre, one-story boat storage facility, and a floating launch dock. The main building houses row tanks, ergometer machines, communal space, and an office for the Chicago Park District. Boat storage accommodates kayak and canoe vendors and includes office space, as well as clear span storage for rowing shells and support equipment.

The total building cost is $8.8 million, with $3.2 million in private funding—including $2 million from WMS, $1 million from North Park University, and $200,000 from the Chicago Rowing Foundation—and $1 million matched by Alderman Ameya Pawar (47th ward) with TIF funds.

The post Studio Gang’s Chicago boathouse designed
to echo the rhythms of rowing appeared first on Dezeen.

An elongated timber prow oversails a solid brick base at this school boathouse in Worcester, England, by British studio Associated Architects (+ slideshow).

The Michael Baker Boathouse replaces an existing building that had served as the The King’s School’s boathouse since the 1950s but was too small to accommodate storage for rowing boats and sculls as well as training facilities, changing rooms and events spaces.

Associated Architects redesigned the building as a two-storey structure with a boat-shaped first floor that cantilevers out towards the adjacent River Severn, while the brickwork ground floor protects the interior from the regular flooding that occurs on the site.

The architects used double-length bricks to emphasise the slender form of the boathouse. The timber-clad upper floor features diagonal lengths of sweet chestnut, which will naturally fade to a silvery-grey, and a glazed bow facing out over the water.

“This and the gently curving plan, following [Worcester’s] historic defensive line, give the building a distinctive modern presence on Riverside Walk,” say the architects.

Interior walls are lined with sheets of birch, alongside more exposed brickwork. A skylight spans the roof to bring daylight into the upper floor.

The layout of the new boathouse also creates a new pedestrian route across the neighbouring memorial gardens.

“The scheme creates a new route to the boathouse through the gardens, which is much more direct, wheelchair friendly, and improves security: the previous boathouse was isolated and accessible only from outside the school grounds,” add the architects.

The Michael Baker Boathouse is the latest of several projects by Associated Architects at The King’s School, which include a new library and a sports hall that is still under construction.

Other boathouses on Dezeen include a cylindrical building in Austin and a renovated Victorian boathouse in the south of England.

Photography is by Martine Hamilton Knight.

Here’s some more information from Associated Architects:

The King’s School, Worcester
Michael Baker Boathouse

Associated Architects’ second ten-year Masterplan for King’s Worcester included rebuilding the Boathouse, which was previously a small and unsightly 1950s building. The site is a focal point in the Masterplan, Conservation Area and in the Worcester City Council/Sustrans Worcester Riverside project. On the line of the old city defences, it is at the edge of the historic city core which has a rich history including Norman and medieval archaeology. The Masterplan proposal to create a striking modern building was welcomed by Worcester City Council planners.

The existing ground floor footprint is increased by 60% to provide storage for all the School’s considerable fleet of rowing boats and sculls. The site is subject to regular flooding, so this floor’s construction internally and externally is robust fair-faced brickwork growing out from the line of the historic brick embankment. Reflecting the elongated form of the building, the new wall is built with double-length bricks.

By contrast, the lightweight upper floor floats above the retaining wall and flood plain. It provides changing, teaching and a school/community training and reception space, with dramatic views up and down the River Severn from a new glazed and cantilevered prow. This and the gently curving plan, following the historic defensive line, give the building a distinctive modern presence on Riverside Walk.

The upper floor overlooks the historic Creighton Memorial Gardens, previously an under-used part of the School grounds. The scheme creates a new route to the Boathouse through the Gardens, which is much more direct, wheelchair friendly, and improves security: the previous Boathouse was isolated and accessible only from outside the School grounds. A new garden terrace and windows north focus views to the twin Worcester landmarks of the Cathedral and St Andrew’s spire.

Fine sweet chestnut timber laths cloak the upper volume, weathering down to a natural silvery-grey colour in keeping with the sensitive historic context. Rather than running horizontally, the laths are set at a shallow angle to enhance the dynamic form of the building. The interior is panelled in ice-birch over timber I-beams, facilitating airtight construction and rapid thermal response for multiple uses. The roof is traditional standing seam terne-coated stainless.

Sustainability is a central consideration in the brief and design. Solar electric and hot water roof panels meet much of the building’s energy needs in summer, and make a useful contribution in winter. The construction uses the principles of Passivhaus design with triple glazing, super-insulation and air-tightness. These measures, coupled with a wood-pellet boiler, give environmental performance to EPC A, approaching zero carbon standards.

Contract Value: £1.86M
Cost per sqm: £1772/sqm
Floor area: 772 sqm
Design: 2010
Construction: 2012
Carbon footprint: 9.4 kg CO2 kg/m2/yr

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by Associated Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

A waterfall is one of the features of this cylindrical boathouse in Austin by Texan architects Bercy Chen Studio.

Located on the edge of Lake Austin, the Shore Vista Boat Dock also has a gently sloping staircase that curls around its two circular storeys.

A curved glass balustrade surrounds the first floor deck, but parts to let the gushing water flow down into the lake below.

Behind the waterfall, a lowered part of the ground floor deck creates a makeshift beach where children can play.

The boat slots into a recess in the deck, beside hanging woven seats that provide a place to relax.

Another boathouse we’ve featured on Dezeen has a glowing blue exterior – see that project here.

Photography is by Paul Bardagjy.

Here’s a little more text from Bercy Chen Studio:

Shore Vista Boat House is located on a bend in Lake Austin across from Canyonland Nature Preserve in Austin, Texas.

The site is suggestive of the elliptical form that maximizes the beautiful views of the undulating hills beyond.

Rounded edges of the dock, along with the curved glass railing, peel away, allowing more of the landscape to be captured into the visual frame.

Access is provided to the lake level via a series of stepping‐stones and a sweeping, gently inclined, curved stairs to the second level.

A lowered beach area, allowing one to ease effortlessly into the water, is strategically located at the basin of a waterfall, providing endless hours of enjoyment for the owners’ young children.