Sts. John & Paul Pavilion

This pavilion for large gatherings, completed in 2016, is attached to the Sts. John & Paul Catholic Church in Sewickley, Pennsylvania. The timber frame is a five-bent hip roofed design, with the two outer bents being truncated to follow the planes of the hipped sections of the roof. An interesting feature of the hip roof design is the “Dragon” beams at the corners. These beams span across the four corners of the lower frame, helping to stiffen the frame, and also providing support for the hip rafters. The chords have a gentle curve, a design feature which can help to create additional height in the center of an otherwise relatively low roof. The timber posts extend into steel boots embedded within the stone piers on the perimeter of the pavilion. The timbers are Douglas fir, select structural, free of heart center and were given a natural finish of ProLuxe SRD.