Mount Holyoke College, Boat House

SGH designed the boat house structure, located on the Connecticut River in a flood zone, in accordance with FEMA “wet-floodproofing” standards to allow the building to withstand occasional flooding.

Highlights of our structural design also include the following:

• Designed the timber-framed superstructure to allow for two large, column-free, boat storage bays and support for future vertical expansion, including an elevator and storage mezzanine
• Detailed the long skylight at the roof ridge to resist wind and seismic loading
• Developed special detailing and designed built-up wind girts constructed of engineered timber to limited the need for lateral bracing
• Collaborated with the architect to provide material efficiency and uniform appearance exposed framing and to accomplish the architectural vision by aligning details with windows and flood doors in the foundation stem walls