Back to school is right around the corner—just in time for the new Rural Studio pinup space! Over the past two months, the Fabrication Pavilion has had a serious update. One of its shear walls has been transformed into storage and very luxurious outdoor pinup space with its own weather screen protection.
Someone Has Framed Us!
In our last update, we tilted the northern and southern walls into place, and installed the header beams to span the 16-foot distance between them. This beam serves many purposes in the design. It is a parapet wall around the perimeter, structure for the top plate, and a surface for the storage doors to close on to. After that, we framed the roof, taking care that the heights matched on both sides of the shear wall. A center column was installed under the header beam, resulting in two separate door openings.
Next, we closed the box, cladding the walls and roof in plywood.
Raise the Roof
Due to its low slope, the team found the best way to waterproof the roof was to use a Peel-and-Stick system. First, we painted the whole surface with an asphalt primer. Then, we laid the underlayment and roofing membrane. We took great care to seal the gaps between the shear wall and the roof framing.
Shocking Developments
We ran conduit from the existing breaker box to lights and outlets along the outer walls. These outlets will provide easy access to use power tools and of course provide a convenient place to plug in a screen for presentations.
A Jamb-Packed Experience
Now, we have our walls, but where are the doors?
The storage space doors are NOT small, being three feet wide and ten feet tall. This size allows easy tool access and makes for fewer joints / interruptions in the Homosote pinup board walls. The doors metal frames were fabricated off site, out of steel. The team consulted with Chicago Brass to spec the appropriate hinges and door hardware, then created a set of fabrication drawings for the rigid steel doorframes with integrated handles, designed to accommodate the attachment of exterior materials and a central pivot hinge. The pivot position allows the door to be flush to the exterior wall when closed. Structural engineer, Joe Farruggia, suggested we support the doors with a steel top plate that would hold the pivot hinge vertical and support the doors.
Fabrication
Anna had the wonderful opportunity to participate in the fabrication of the doors at her dad’s fabrication shop, Leach & Company in Gadsden, AL, creating plasma cutting files, cutting holes for the attachment of door hardware, and welding the pieces into frames.
Installation
Afterwards, we brought the frames to Newbern and bolted them into the concrete slab. We positioned the pivot hinges carefully to ensure a balanced swing for the doors.
We installed wood to the threaded rods on the inner surface of the door frames to attach plywood. The doors and walls were all clad with plywood and dimpleboard. Dimpleboard creates an air gap that will allow the plywood and Homasote to dry out if hit by wind driven rain.
A Hole Ordeal
Shortly after the delivery of the doors, the perforated aluminum for the screen arrived. The screen covers two bays, to offer wind, glare, sun and driven rain protection. The two bays are a test, something we can live with for a bit, before investing in the rest of the south side of the pavilion. The process of installing the screen began with the columns. Three columns had a long Unistrut channel installed vertically along their outer faces. The 18-foot aluminum panels were mounted to the Unistrut using spring-loaded channel nuts. The team installed them from bottom to top so that water can run down the screen’s surface.
All It’s Pinned Up To Be
Finally, the team installed the finish materials and accessory utilities. The team marked out the placement of all the screws using a jig, so that the surface would remain consistent across all sides. Then, we installed flashing along the bottom of the walls and the Homasote above. The material continuity around the storage allows the doors to blend in allowing the pinup walls to feel like one continuous surface wrapping around the shear wall.
The steel top plate wraps down the southern side, and is fully clad in the gray metal. This creates a separate utility area between the south side of the pinup space and the translucent screen. The team installed custom hooks for storage. The space is equipped with safety equipment, first aid kits, cleaning supplies, and a water spigot.
A set of outdoor utility lights with custom steel shades was installed last. We mounted the lights facing upwards, allowing the light to reflect off the ceiling and wash down the Homasote walls. This indirect lighting diminishes glare while enabling clear viewing of drawings after sunset.
Now, you may be wondering what we’ve decided to name the space… Being a campus project, we thought that it would be appropriate to let the students users decide what it should be called. So we put up a plaque inside the structure with a list of possibilities. Which one is your favorite?
First Presentation
We wrapped up construction with a celebratory lunch with our families, faculty, and all the new students here for the Fall 2024 semester. After a delicious meal of catfish, everyone gathered in the Fabrication Pavilion for the space’s first presentation. We walked through the whole process of the project’s design and construction and showed off construction drawings and renderings.
There’s still work to be done repairing the Fabrication Pavilion roof, but we are proud to present the end of this phase of the project. We will have a grand opening when the roof is completed.
Acknowledgements list:
Dan Wheeler, Joe Farruggia, Thomas Paterson, Angelo at Chicago Brass, and William Leach
