The Pavilion at the Baltimore Museum
What an impact the timber-framed pavilion has made to the six-acre waterfront site of the Baltimore Museum of Industry.
Built and completed by Hugh Lofting Timber Framing Inc. in early 1996, the pavilion has become a destination for people to enjoy the beauties of the harbor, as well as to learn about the city’s significant role in the Industrial Revolution.
“This year we had about 900 people in and around the pavilion enjoying the July Fourth festivities,” said Charles H. Boyd, museum deputy director.
“Weddings, crab fests, family picnics, corporate parties and school outings are regularly held there. It is a wonderful asset for our campus.”
In the mid ‘90s, when museum board members decided to build an outdoor pavilion as the centerpiece of a waterfront park, they decided it must be constructed in the sturdy and traditional timber-framed manner.
Not only was timber framing chosen for its strength and cost efficiencies, but it is a construction that reflects craftsmanship and Baltimore’s rich history of industrial architecture – and timber framing. The pavilion was designed as a replica of a building at Sparrows Point where trolleys used to pick up and deliver Baltimore residents for a day’s outing at Bay Shore Park.
“In essence, it was a trolley barn,” said Raymond Piechocki, a museum board member who headed up the museum’s building committee at the time of the pavilion’s construction. “In the ‘40s and early ‘50s, people used to take the trolley to the park. It reflects another era.”
Hugh Lofting was chosen after a careful search and interview process for the project because of his knowledge, expertise, artistic abilities, as well as his exuberance, Piechocki said, adding that the museum is happy with how the building turned out. “The pavilion has become an integral part of the museum,” he said.
Hugh, who visited the pavilion on a beautiful summer’s day, pointed out how one end of the rectangular building has a gable, while the end that faces the harbor has a hip roof
The building, open on all sides, had to be carefully engineered for strength and beauty.
Not only are open-sided buildings especially vulnerable to strong winds, but by creating the eye-catching hip roof, several beams had to be joined together at one point. The pegs, used in this traditional post-and-beam construction, were made of fiberglass instead of wood. For added strength, they were driven though aluminum plates. The building is also eye-catching because of the translucent stain used on the southern yellow pine beams. “It’s meant to mimic old fashioned white washing,” Lofting said.
A group of youngsters recently gathered within the timbers. They sat on benches and listened to their history teacher. The water lapped against the side of the wharf. The wind blew gently through the structure. Baltimore’s modern harbor skyline peered at the group through the rugged, horizontal beams.
