Rough Seas
Given the width of the structure — 24 feet — and the fact that the first 50 feet had to conform to the old footprint, Owens’ first design challenge was to create a floor plan that was something other than a railroad apartment where you have to go through one room to get into the other. He stuck to the established rectangle for the first 51 feet back from the river, then added a separate entry on the side of the house, articulated at 45 degrees, and lengthened the structure by an additional 30 feet. The entry opens onto a foyer flanked by “folding walls”. These afford maximum space for displaying the couple’s paintings while shielding the art work from ultraviolet light.
A second challenge was to design a building that would stay warm, dry, and vertical in the changing seasons and constant winds of the gorge. Eleven and a half inches of rigid foam lies between the standing seam metal roof and the salvaged 2x8s that went to make up the ceiling. “It’s like a sandwich,” Owens says. In addition, the crew opted to wrap the house in 30-pound felt.
Then a third problem presented itself: wind load. “Looking at something on a plan is one thing, and building it is another,” project manager George Pavanovsky points out. Pavanovsky noticed the frame “undulating” in the winds that sometimes surge to 80 mph in the gorge. Alarmed, he called the engineer who’d provided input into the plans. “When he got there and saw what we’d framed up, he said, ‘We’re going to have to do some recalculations.'”
The solution, one of several considered, was to re-frame the gable end of the house on the river side with a steel moment frame formulated to absorb sheer forces. Pavanovsky was able to find a steel fabricator to make the frame, which was constructed in two pieces, then craned into place and bolted to the foundation by Neil Kelly Co. carpenters. A welder then joined the two pieces. “Once it was bolted in and welded, it was the anchor for the whole house,” Pavanovsky says. Ultimately, the Neil Kelly Co. ate the cost of re-framing, splitting part of it with the engineer.
All Hands on Deck
Many times clients have only a vague sense of what they want built. But in this case, the Snyders had a room-by-room list. They pointed out, for instance, that the media room was to be soundproofed, that it should include shelving for electronic components, and that the shelving had to be built to allow the electronic equipment to be reached from the rear. In the final design, Snyder says, Owens fulfilled every wish. “And it far exceeded our expectations.”
The Snyders researched aspects of the project, contacted and hired artisans and craftsmen on their own, and even specified the geothermal heating system. “On many projects, you can perceive the owners’ participation as a hindrance,” Owens says. “I realized early on, because of the size and magnitude of the project, that it would take a special client to do this.” Owens cites Irv Snyder’s “knowledge base and his thirst for knowledge, and his experience as an executive” with helping to suggest solutions, especially to technical problems. Ultimately, says Owens, what Snyder contracted for on his own represented only a small portion of this large job.
