Now that the details for the porch cladding have been resolved, we moved our attention to detailing the door opening. While working through the details we studied the doors in the rest of the hotel, and in our imediate surrounding, particularly the triming and how other doors that have trasom windows, have been adressed. In order to design something that fits with the language of the cladding, but also works with the language of the door.
Exterior of porch door
Interior of porch door
Dimensioned existing section through porch door
As is the norm now, the team has had weekly meetings with Andrew and Steve to talk about details and design or book progreess. And from time to time we get to talk with Dr. Dorsey, Director of Project Horseshoe Farm, and our client or consultants such as David Kennedy, about our heavy timber bench.
Sneak Peak of a draft! While working remotely the team has started working on the book, which is an in depth documentation of the design and construction process.
Considering the current circumstance of the Covid-19 outbreak, the Studio has temporarily closed its doors for the safety of the Studio and the community. For the last couple of weeks we have been transitioning to a virtual studio in order to continue pushing the design, and finalize details while we wait for news to return to site.
View from walkway past Beacon alley
Custom corner fin connects railing pieces with the same spacers and fasteners
Some weeks ago, we started to go through iterations of what would be best for the walkway railing end, especially considering no other railing turns the corner. However, we felt the best way to understand the design was to put up the fabricated pieces and study the existing conditions before going further. Now that we have gone through multiple iterations, (solid panels, grating, and entirely different materials) we have choosen to continue with the same language to minimize the “noise” at the north end and keep the same lightness and transparency as the rest of the design.
During this time the team also started to revise some existing detailing of the benches
Detailed section of concrete wall on North end of site
Section of concrete sidewalk by the main entrance of the courtyard
After all the screens and railing pieces were up, the next step was to start working on the concrete surfaces. Both the slab in the stage porch, and the sidewalk under the walkway that culminated with a concrete wall. This included re-routing the gas line away from the building in a location where it would be accessible if needed, rather than embeded in the concrete. This led to its future placement being along the screen legs, at the top of the trenches. This will be the first thing to be completed when construction is resumed.
Plan of porch indicating cut lines of the sections below.
Slate is going to be the material for the finish ground surface where there isn’t concrete or bricks. For the last couple of iterations, slate is also used on the perimeter of the slabs, which would give tolerance to the nearly 200-year building and recreate the two-inch gap that is between the walkway wall plate and bracket. Giving the rainwater somewhere to drip, while avoiding the concrete. This detail is re-created in the porch for consistency and for the cladding to have some breathing room if water does enter the space.
