Precast Solutions

A Frank Lloyd Wright Takes Shape

Precast panels offer the strength and flexibility for a Frank Lloyd Wright original design in Buffalo.

By Deborah R. Huso

Buffalo has long been a showcase city for Frank Lloyd Wright’s classic building designs. The famous architect’s legacy for this city in western New York includes structures built during his lifetime, such as the famous Prairie-style Darwin Martin House and the George Barton House, and those built after his death, such as the Blue Sky Mausoleum.

The most recent addition to Buffalo’s Wright repertoire is the Frank Lloyd Wright Rowing Boathouse on the Black Rock Channel along the Niagara River. Completed last fall, the boathouse is an almost perfect rendition of the plans Wright originally drew in 1905 for the University of Wisconsin Boat Club. The structure was never built, but Wright revised the plans in the 1930s, updating the construction materials from frame and stucco to concrete and featured it in an international exhibition of what he considered his eight greatest designs.

Eight years ago, West Side Rowing Club members John Courtin, who previously worked with the Darwin Martin House, along with Ted Marks and Jay Meyers, formed the Frank Lloyd Wright Rowing Boathouse Corp. specifically to build the boathouse in Buffalo.

Constructed on land leased by Erie County adjacent to the West Side Rowing Club, the nation’s largest youth-based rowing club, the Frank Lloyd Wright Rowing Boathouse is today a testament to the architect’s timeless design and also evidence of the versatility of precast concrete even in re-creating historic structures.

How the boathouse came to be

Among those hired to work on the project was Anthony Puttnam, a Frank Lloyd Wright apprentice who had also worked on the Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center in Madison, Wis. (another project based on Wright’s plans). “The boathouse was originally designed for the shore of a placid river in Wisconsin,” says Puttnam. Wright also originally designed the boathouse for frame and stucco construction, though he changed the plans in the 1930s to concrete. Of course, the climate of Buffalo, especially on the water, would have been no match for stick construction, and poured concrete would have been impractical for a building with one wall at water’s edge. Furthermore, the project’s builders and architects wanted to remain as true to the Frank Lloyd Wright design as possible, which meant keeping its monolithic appearance and avoiding structure seams.

“We wanted to make as few architectural changes as possible,” points out Ted Marks, chairman of the Frank Lloyd Wright Rowing Boathouse Corp.

Precast concrete offers the solution

Since Wright’s 1930’s rendition of the structure, however, building codes on navigable waters have changed dramatically. Marty Knauss with Lehigh Construction Group in Buffalo says the soundest measure seemed to be building the boathouse with a steel frame and precast cladding. “We needed a material that was durable,” he says. However, none of the precast in the Wright structure is load-bearing, and many types of concrete were used in the project, including cast-in-place for the part of the foundation sitting on the sea wall.

The corporation selected Lakelands Concrete to provide the precast concrete for the project. “It wasn’t originally designed as precast,” says Lakelands Concrete’s Carl Ashley. “It was designed around cast-in-place with a stucco finish.”

The use of precast concrete for the building’s facade meant adding joints that Wright had not used in his original design. This proved to offer the ideal solution, however, given the fact that part of the building was on the water and builders had to contend with Buffalo’s unwieldy climate. After the precast panels had been built in the factory, it took just over a month to erect them on site. Knauss says he decided to have the erector build the wall on the water first so he could work from what would be the inside of the building. Once that wall was up, he constructed the other three walls.

The panels were clipped to the steel frame, and the corners overlapped to give the structure a box-like look. Glass inserts were added to the top of the parapet to raise the height of the balcony parapet to meet modern code requirements without changing the proportions of the original design.

“The pieces were extremely large,” says Knauss. “We wanted the panels as large as possible to create a monolithic look.” The precast panels were in the neighborhood of 35 feet long, 11 feet high, and 10 inches thick, and they weighed about 4,000 to 5,000 pounds per foot. “The erection of the precast came off smooth as silk. The steel and precast went up in less than a month,” remarks Knauss.

“Cast-in-place probably wouldn’t have worked because of the size of the building,” says Knauss. “Precast was the right choice for speed and weatherability. Anything else wouldn’t have held up.”

Puttnam agrees, pointing out that since the structure is a working boathouse, it has to be able to stand up to the abuse of 60-foot eight-man shells being moved in and out. “I can’t imagine what the shell could have been that wouldn’t have made it too fragile,” he adds. The building also has to stand up to 60- and 70-mile-per-hour winds in winter as well as high water that rises as much as 11 feet. “Ice comes right up to the building,” points out Puttnam, “and that’s a heavy load.”

The color matching challenge

Since Wright had originally designed the boathouse with a uniform stucco exterior, one of the biggest challenges of the project was actually creating the look of the building’s finish and then making sure that finish was uniform on the different types of materials used. “Everything from grade up needed to match,” says Knauss. Since the top portion of the building, over the viewing area, is glass fiber reinforced concrete, it had to match the precast.

Rather than try to dye the concrete, Lakelands, under Puttnam’s direction, picked a beige color for the building that could be achieved using untinted cement and an aggregate from a nearby quarry. The company then shipped that same aggregate to the GFRC (glass-fiber reinforced concrete) manufacturer in Ontario. “Working with the natural colors of concrete was going to be more advantageous than tinting,” notes Knauss. “Lakelands’ panels were the color basis of everything that was to come.” The roof pavers were made using the same aggregate as well, and the exterior finish on the underside of the broad cantilevered roof overhangs is the same color.

The building’s simple, clean design belies the challenge of the thought process that went into its completion, however. “I don’t think there were more than four panels in the building that were the same size,” says Knauss. “The boathouse has a small, simple look, but it was complicated to put together. Therein is the complexity—there was very little room for error.”

Puttnam agrees, “To keep it so there was enough space for boats and lockers, it was like putting a watch together. We fought for every inch of space.”

Even though the fundraising and planning for Frank Lloyd Wright’s Boathouse took many years, its construction was complete in only nine months due in large part to the speed of using precast concrete panels for the cladding.

Deborah Huso is a freelance writer who covers home design and restoration, sustainable building and design, and home construction. For more information on Frank Lloyd Wright’s Boathouse, visit www.wrightsboathouse.org.

PROJECT PROFILE

Project: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Rowing Boathouse

Project Owner: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Rowing Boathouse Corp., Buffalo, N.Y.

Original Architect: Frank Lloyd Wright

Project Architect: Anthony Puttnam, Wright apprentice, Taliesin Associated Architects

Project Engineer: Hamilton, Houston and Lowrie, Buffalo, N.Y.

Precast Manufacturer: Lakelands Concrete, Lima, N.Y.

Builder: Lehigh Construction Group Inc., Buffalo, N.Y.