Patio Pavilion

"Bouquet Column" at yard entry

Pavilion Design Source, earlier Grape Arbor

Smoothly Changing Angles

View looking back from Apple Tree
Pool of light from Plum Tree hole

"The Dome"

Patio Pavilion and Gazebo, Levine Residence, Eugene, Oregon

In the original garden master plan I made in 1990 for Levine’s backyard we looked to eventually renovate the rather-large patio that exists next to the house. Time passed, garden-structures were built, Levine’s gardens grew and flourished, and Levine grew to love spending as much time as he possibly could in his gardens, even in Eugene’s long rainy winters. Also, Levine grew to love opening his gardens for local and regional gatherings and community benefit tours, rain or shine. For several years he made do with a small, store-bought canopy that he’d move around on his newly-renovated patio (see crazy-quilt detail in "Hidden Gardens")... this contrivance did not even encompass his picnic table. The large pavilion naturally emerged. The quality of the gardens warranted a special structure. The 1995 design that emerged excited all of us and, for three years, Levine proceeded to garner the money to build it. We sought and cultivated a special builder in Jack Birky to erect it.

The plan of this structure is ell-shaped. The nearly-square patio is housed under the pavilion and a wing projects (from the pavilion) eastwards towards the apple tree domain. This annex acts as a gazebo, providing a special shelter clear of the patio proper and placing one out into the main garden.

The pavilion and gazebo are a fully functional shelter that uses bronze-tinted UV-blocking polycarbonate sheeting as the roofing. The availability of polycarbonate in very long lengths, and its flexibility (note that the gazebo roof completes quite a dramatic twist as it extends away from the pavilion) enable complete material and structural continuity between the pavilion and gazebo. The pavilion light is softened by lath, deliberately employed in varying densities in differing areas. In one place, the roofing and lath are completely cut away and a plum tree grows around the rafters and through the hole.

Treated Paralam (trade name) members comprise the nine columns and three principal beams of the frame and their availability in extra-long lengths permits a substantially-lighter framework than solid dimensional wood allows. I decided to derive this project’s general design from the geometry and structure of the grape arbor, built some years earlier, at the opposite end of the yard. The structural concept of using gangs of angle-struts, (for both wind-bracing and extending beam-span capacities), was significantly elaborated from the design of the grape pergola. The repetitive pavilion rafters, arranged in a smooth progression of changing angles, create strong visual movement... this radiating design also echoes the geometry of the grape arbor. Various other parts of the pavilion and gazebo continue radiating displays of material and suggestion of flight is enhanced by these very abstract references to feathers. The entire 22'-square patio expanse is column-free and, although the pavilion is a gabled pitched-roof structure, its height, lightness, and visual dynamics create a floating dome-like space over the patio. The angular bouquets of the building members strongly mimic the surrounding trees, and this characteristic, along with the structure’s great openness, truly make this creation one with the gardens.

View toward Gazebo and Apple Tree.
Note Gazebo has only 2 columns and Plum tree grows through roof