Susquehanna Heritage Pavilion

This modestly sized, roughly 600-square-foot pavilion sits on the west bank of the Susquehanna River in Wrightsville, York County, Pennsylvania. The architects maintained that “It’s all about the river and water-front.” They envisioned an elegant pavilion that would be structurally unobtrusive, and yet that could withstand seasonal flooding and severe winter ice flows. Employing just five beams and three columns, the building met that goal. The timbers are Douglas fir glulams (24F-V8), the roof decking is 4 x 6 Lock-Deck, and the steel is type 304 stainless with a D-3 glass bead-blasted satin finish.

As simple as the structure appears at first glance, consider that out of all the timber-to-timber connections not one is 90 degrees or even 45 degrees. The 4×6 tongue-and-grove Lock-Deck ceiling boards were laid out, cut, and then screwed together into three panels before being shipped to the site.

This pavilion was our first PennDOT (Pennsylvania Department of Transportation)-monitored project. Every sub-zero day after sub-zero day for the week that we were on site, two PennDOT employees sat in a heated pickup truck and watched the show.