Digging Into the Details of Woods Hole Terminal Designs

Louisa Hufstader Sunday, March 31 2019 - 5:36pm

Longevity is just one of an extensive list of objectives the new building must meet, boat line officials said at a recent presentation in Falmouth.

After years of development and public discussions, the Steamship Authority is closing in on a final design for the new Woods Hole terminal. A public presentation of three alternatives is scheduled for April 8 at 5 p.m. at the Katharine Cornell Theatre in Vineyard Haven.

A few weeks ago the three designs were first revealed to the public. More recently, architect Liam Davis of BIA.studio, the firm designing the structure, discussed each possibility in greater detail. About 85 Woods Hole villagers and other Falmouth residents attended the presentation at Falmouth High School last week.

The new building is intended to last for a half-century, “through weather of all sorts,” said Kathryn Wilson, the Falmouth SSA governor, at the outset of the evening.

“Fifty years takes us into 2069,” she added.

Longevity is just one of an extensive list of objectives the new building must meet, boat line officials said. It also must be floodproof, roomy enough for 300 passengers to shelter in winter weather and close enough to Woods Hole village and the Shining Sea bike path for non-passengers to use the restrooms.

With input from members of the Woods Hole business and residential communities as well as SSA operations managers, boat line officials and the architects reviewed more than two dozen potential locations for the building.

Vehicle staging areas, shuttle buses for parking, turning space for trucks and safe access for pedestrians and bicyclists all had to be taken into account, said Stephen M. Sayers, who retired last year as SSA general counsel but remains on staff part time.

“It was going to be a series of compromises from the very beginning of this project,” he said.

Some audience members spoke against the final building location, asking why it could not be sited closer to Juniper Point in order to block less of the Woods Hole passage view.

That location would inconvenience non-passengers who use the terminal bathrooms, forcing them to walk farther and negotiate vehicle traffic on their way from the village, Mr. Sayers said.

Another compromise involves the mass of the building. The architects have reduced its footprint by 10 feet since they presented an early design in October, and the SSA is seeking a variance that could shave four feet off its height.

But the structure will remain at least two stories tall. One of the three concept designs shown Thursday, titled Three-Story Crossing Gable Roof, has a third story as well. The other two, known as Reduced Saltbox Roof and Gable Roof, share the same first-floor design but different roofs.

Even a single-story, flat-roofed structure would block much of the water view, according to a December study by the boat line, architects and community members. A single-story building would also need to have mechanical equipment on its roof, and would have a larger footprint than a two-story design, Mr. Sayers said.

Falmouth residents also challenged the choice of stone for the first-floor exterior, an element of the design that has drawn criticism on both sides of the Sound.

But the impermeable cladding is not just a design choice—it’s the law when building in a flood zone, architect Liam Davis said.

“With climate change, we’re seeing very different conditions up and down the coast and the building codes reflect that,” he told the Falmouth audience.

“We need a building that can withstand flooding to 17 feet,” he continued.

“This really is not your typical building. One way to think of it is as a boat that is not meant to float.”

The terminal building must withstand water pressure from below and all four sides, Mr. Davis said. Cedar shake shingles can clothe the second floor, but the first must be weatherproof.

Inspired by the Woods Hole Museum’s 1836 Candle House on nearby Water street, Mr. Davis said his firm is working to find the closest possible match to the locally-quarried pink granite that is now a “completely depleted resource.”

Slides from Thursday’s presentation are available online https://drive.google.com/file/d/1I3CX2R4Q9P7WZRaCmq-Izl2YDKdjtqxB/view.

Comments

Why is the inconvenience of

Curious MV

Why is the inconvenience of non-passengers such a concern?

Not a single speaker among

WH Resident

Not a single speaker among the 85 attendees at last Thursday evening's presentation by the Steamship Authority at Falmouth High School spoke in favor of any of the three design alternatives. The whole audience was against all of the designs. Speakers noted that the redesigns are too high, too big, and too out of character of other Cape buildings. The most common suggestion from the audience was to split one big building's functions into two smaller buildings, one of which would be off to the side where the existing freight shed now stands. One building would be for customers, the other building would be for the Steamship staff's offices, lockers, and training room. The proposed design alternatives are simply an insult to Woods Hole residents.

This is the first I've heard

Concerned Islander West Tisbury

This is the first I've heard that nonpaying pedestrians carry so much weight for location of the ferry terminal. That has some head scratching. What other business puts nonpaying customers so high up the ladder. If that is really true, maybe a separate restroom facility could be built to solve that issue, perhaps split by the town and the SSA. Second, why are their no solar panels anywhere in the designs. The use of stone on the first floor is deemed necessary as a result of climate change, that seems logical to take the opportunity to build a solar paneled roof with a passive solar design.
Does LEED certification play a role in this kind of project. i would like to hear from SSA about these questions. Maybe now is a good time to practice
the communication habits that is part of the consultant report.

I am equally curious about

Kate Edgartown

I am equally curious about efficiency. Having taken the ferry from Lewis DE to Cape May NJ, I noticed they used airport type connectors for passengers from the terminal to the ferry. They were controllable from the ferry. I look at the current labor intensive methods of connecting ferry to dock and wonder why the building isn’t being thought of for efficiency of operations.
I also wonder why it’ll the building can’t look like the VH terminal which fits with the local architecture. It could be turned 90 degrees to save some of the view.

Why the need for a second

Darrell King Edgartown/Belmont

Why the need for a second floor at all? There is already a brand new building down at the Palmer Ave. lot with an enormous amount of space. And use of mini-split air source heat pumps would eliminate the need for heavy equipment (HVAC air handlers, etc.) on the roof, except for the solar panels which should cover it completely.

“ if you gave me 6 hours to

Jim Menemsha

“ if you gave me 6 hours to cut down a tree,
I would spend the first four hours sharpening the axe...”

Abe Lincoln

The SSA doesn’t embrace the concept of transparent resource based planning and management - and this is just another corollary to that sad chaotic mindset.

Why is everything done in the 11th hour ?

Could we have designed the terminals well before we tore down the old one based on sound objectives and calm analysis?

The sad reality is that the ware flow and utilization of components such as boats trucks cars passengers and collateral components is not understood and not been forecast or modeled.

No goals, so no strategic planning hence no optimization

It seems to me that the most

Throwinitoutthere Tisbury

It seems to me that the most logical spot for a new building would be at the present location of the employee parking. For some reason, in all of the designs, the employee parking was untouched or even expanded. With the new facility at Palmer, Woods Hole employee parking should be decreased or off site. Employees aboard the boats should be parking at Palmer Ave as there are shuttle buses every 15 minutes and most boat employees work extended shifts, it's a waste of space.The new building would be off to the side, you could split the travel lanes and have a bypass lane for trucks and buses. Check in could be done higher up on the hill with 2 or three lanes instead of the present one. A smaller ticket counter, snack bar and restrooms could be built into the bank at the North or East wall of the lower lot, invisible from above. As an added bonus, provide a green roof as a small park/observation deck at the street up on the bridge level.

I've been trying to decipher

Peter Edgatown

I've been trying to decipher the proposed ferry terminal plans, and it looks to me that in the new traffic circulation plan all traffic exiting the ferries and the terminal area will have to drive up the hill on the Railroad Avenue, past the rear of Pie in the Sky and merge there with Water Street. Really? When a big ferry comes in, all of the cars, trucks and the parking lot busses would be using the same narrow road with sight lines at the merge restricted by the cars parked in front of the bank on Water Street. That seems like plan that will guarantee gridlock.