Skidmore College Valentine Boathouse Ribbon Cutting

Chris Lesher, P.E., is attending the Valentine Boathouse ribbon cutting ceremony at Skidmore College. Ryan Biggs | Clark Davis was retained to design the structure and foundations of two new buildings to expand the boathouse to a three-building complex to accommodate the rowing program. The new buildings include a 2,100-square-foot team building (housing locker rooms, offices, and multi-purpose training room) and a 1,300-square-foot storage building.

Poor soil conditions, a tight site bounded by wetlands and a road, and high design flood elevations led to different design strategies for each building. Both buildings are one-story, wood-framed structures supported by wood piles and concrete foundations. The training room roof structure is exposed and includes unique glulam-wood-and-steel trusses. The team building required dry flood proofing, which we provided by designing a structural concrete slab and exterior walls that consisted of concrete up to the design flood elevation and wood framing above. The storage building was designed using wet flood proofing techniques, including a crawl space with flood vents in the exterior foundation walls and preservative-treated wood floor framing.