Dartmouth College’s Organic Farm has a spiffy new pavilion, raised last Thursday and Friday. This frame features heavy rot resistant white oak timbers, human-size outshot braces, structural fascia, king post trusses, and tension chains bracing the structure between bents (so many features in this pavilion, it’s such a gem).
The tension chains are a fun, unusual way to keep the structure true without adding more beefy timber (similar to the chains in the timber frame pavilion shown in the final photo of my last blogpost here.) These chains have a turnbuckle on the upper end where they connect to purlins, so they can be tensioned over time. They hook into custom knifeplates at the posts, which are buried in through-mortises in the posts and held fast with handmade pegs.
The white oak posts in this pavilion have a thick tenon that pierces through the tie beam/lower chord of the truss, and continues into the the principle rafter/upper chord. All braces are curved, and the lower braces are fastened to the posts with bolts through the interior side of the post. We hope the Dartmouth community has many fun pizza parties in this pavilion, and that the pizza is as tasty as the joinery is complex!
Looking towards the end bent of this finished pavilion
Purlins above
Lots of joinery coming together- turnbuckles visible on chains
Pegged knifeplates holding the tension chains
The raised timber frame pavilion (and Mr. David Hooke in his identifying red hat)
