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Silverwood Pole Buildings

This article by Brian Walker appeared on CDAPress.com Tuesday August 26:

“The cause of Sunday’s fire, which destroyed a restroom and changing area at the Boulder Beach water park at Silverwood Theme Park, remained under investigation on Monday.

“We don’t know how it started yet,” said Mark Robitaille, Silverwood spokesman.

Robitaille said it appears the fire, which was reported around 2 p.m., started in the male side of the building, which is in the northeast part of Boulder Beach near the Avalanche Mountain family rides.

Robitaille said a state fire marshal continued the investigation on Monday. He said an estimate of the damage hasn’t been determined.

“It destroyed the building,” he said.

There were no injuries. Robitaille said one person was transported to Kootenai Health due to smoke inhalation.

The fire shut down the water park portion of the theme park for about two hours. Four attractions near the fire were closed for the rest of Sunday during the investigation, but re-opened Monday.

Robitaille said the building will be rebuilt, but since the water park is only open for one more week, it’s not an urgent matter.

“We should have the building open for the 2015 opening,” he said.

The amusement park portion of the business was not affected.

An off-duty firefighter assisted Silverwood employees until fire crews from Timberlake and Northern Lakes put out the fire.”

Now most will ask, “Where is Silverwood” and probably also, “Why is this important”?

From 1973 to 1988 along the West side of U.S. Route 95 near Athol, Idaho was a small airstrip operated as the Henley Aerodrome – featuring antique airplanes and stunt flying shows. The Aerodrome became Silverwood Theme Park in 1988 and today is the largest theme and waterpark in the American Northwest.

Entrepreneur Gary Norton loved planes, so he bought the airport, and trains – so he bought a train to go around the property. The theme park became something to run the train through!

Silverwood has made extensive use of pole buildings strategically placed around the park – including (sadly) the building which burned down last weekend. Many of the “thrill” rides such as wooden roller coasters “Timber Terror” and “Tremors”, as well as the Log Flume begin and end in pole buildings! A large picnic area at the Southwest corner of the park, features a series of pole buildings where groups on any size can be entertained out of the weather.

Visiting the Spokane – Coeur d’Alene area from May through September (or at the Halloween season when it becomes “Scarywood”)? Take a day to enjoy Gary’s dream – and don’t forget to check out the pole buildings!

This entry was posted in Pole Barn Planning, Rebuilding Structures and tagged pole barn uses, amusement park pole buildings, parks on September 5, 2014 by admin.

Cape May Pole Barn

Tuesday afternoon I had to get from Cape May, New Jersey to Lewes, Delaware. The choices were a very long circuitous drive, or to take the ferry. Being from the Pacific Northwest, I am used to ferries, they take millions of passengers annually on a myriad of routes across the Puget Sound.

I am also used to the ferries running frequently – which is not the case on a week day in May – as there are only six departures from Cape May, the last one (which I caught) being at six p.m.

It wasn’t like I had anywhere to go, so my four o’clock arrival gave me a couple of hours respite from driving.

Cape May has done a spectacular job at creating a positive ferry terminal experience. They offer event hosting, as well as live music several nights a week. For the adventurous – free putt-putt golf!

Cape May Pole Barn Being as I enjoy a tall cold beverage on occasion. I joined my host, Michael, at the outdoor bar. Numerous choices of local brews were available. As chance would have it, Michael explained to me Milton (near Lewes)is the home for one of the craft breweries – Dogfish Head. In a pole barn.

The brewery is located at #6 Cannery Village Center in Milton, Delaware and they have a brewpub at 320 Rehoboth Ave., in Rehoboth Beach. It turns out Dogfish Head Brewing began in 1995 as Delaware’s first legal distillery. For more information on the brewery visit: www.dogfish.com.

Now I had to chuckle at the chance I would be at a ferry terminal, in Cape May, New Jersey, and have my bar server tell me about a pole building brewery. He went on to say the Dogfish Head Brewery does regular tours and business has been so brisk, they have had to expand their pole building several times.

It turned out to be a wonderful day on the water from Cape May to Lewes. Along the journey I texted several times to my lovely bride (as it was our 14^th wedding anniversary), jokingly telling her our ferry captain was Jonas Grumby (Google the name).

Now I got to thinking about the few pole building brewery projects I had been involved with over the decades. Yesterday afternoon, I was on the road towards Kitty Hawk, North Carolina when I drive by a huge pole building on the right. Home of – you guessed it – a brewery! The Weeping Radish Farm Brewery (www.weepingradish.com) is located on the Caratoke Highway near Grandy, NC.

I don’t know if the beer at Weeping Radish Farm Brewery is any good, but they have certainly had fun with the artwork on the end of their pole building!

This entry was posted in Building Styles and Designs, Pole Barn Planning and tagged cape may ferry, Dogfish Head Brewery, Lewes Ferry, pole building, pole barn, pole barn uses on May 23, 2014 by admin.

Groupon & Pole Barn Water Park

For those who have been hiding under rocks, or do not have internet access (in which case you are not reading this article), Groupon (derived from “group coupon”) swept onto the scene in November 2008.

Groupon offers one “Groupon” per day in each of the markets it serves. The Groupon works as an assurance contract – if a certain number of people sign up for the offer, then the deal becomes available to all. If the predetermined minimum number is not reached, no one gets the deal of the day. Groupon makes money by keeping approximately half of the money paid for the coupon.

With 2013 revenues of $2.573 billion dollars and a website ranked in the top 400 worldwide Groupon is a force in the marketplace.

Well, I am a Groupon subscriber so every day I get an email with the day’s Groupon deal. Today’s deal opened my eyes to a pole building use I had not considered previously – the water park!

great-wolf-lodge The Groupon was for Great Wolf Lodge Grand Mound in Centralia, Washington. The photo with the Groupon ad has various water slides covered by a pole building!

See it here: https://www.groupon.com/deals/ga-great-wolf-lodge-grand-mound-4

My best guess is this post frame building has a Use and Occupancy classification under the International Building Code (IBC) of A-3. An A-3 building would be, “Assembly uses intended for worship, recreation or amusement and other assembly uses not classified elsewhere in Group A”.

Post frame buildings are what is known as Type V-B construction – a wood framed assembly without a fire rating. IBC Table 503 limits V-B Group A-3 buildings to a single story of 6,000 sft (square feet) and a 40 foot overall height.

Using one-hour fire assemblies (Type V-A construction) would increase the limits to two stories, each of which could be 11,500 sft with a 50 foot overall height.

Increases in building area are allowed for in IBC Equation 5-1 for both frontage (if the building adjoins or has access to a public way) and for having an automatic sprinkler system. The sprinkler increase alone triples the allowable footage to 18,000 sft.

Ever considered putting a water park inside of a pole building? I probably never would have – if it wouldn’t have been for Groupon!

This entry was posted in Alternate Siding, Building Styles and Designs and tagged post frame building, Great Wolf Lodge Grand Mound, pole barn uses, water park on May 21, 2014 by admin.