WMS Boathouse at Clark Park Wins 2016 AIA National Award

January 19, 2016
WMS Boathouse at Clark Park

The WMS Boathouse at Clark Park in Chicago is a 2016 recipient of the Institute Honor Award from the American Institute of Architects (AIA). The jury, chaired by architect Josiah Stevenson, FAIA, and comprising architects Brad Cloepfil, AIA; Roberto de Leon, AIA; and Julie Eizenberg, FAIA, among others, recognized the boathouse as “a respite from hectic urban life,”with “a wonderful informal relationship between building, river and the park where it sits.”

Completed in 2013, the WMS Boathouse is one of four boathouses commissioned by the City of Chicago as part of an initiative to revitalize the Chicago River as the city’s next recreational frontier. It supports this larger movement toward the ecological and recreational revival of the river by creating a key public access point to this shared city resource at the river’s edge.

Clad in durable zinc and slate panels, the boathouse’s two structures —a single-story boat storage building that houses rowing teams’ eight-person shells, as well as kayak and canoe rentals, and a two-story field house that contains an indoor rowing tank and other workout facilities—form a portal to the river. The sculptural roof translates the rhythm of rowing into architectural form, providing visual interest as well as passive solar heating through the building’s upper clerestory. In summer, the clerestory lets in fresh air, while in winter, it allows sunlight to warm the floor slab, minimizing energy use year-round. The structures themselves, as well as the site’s porous concrete and asphalt, native plantings, beds of gravel, and rain gardens, divert 100% of storm water from the city’s combined sewer system. Storm water is retained and filtered on-site before being slowly released to the ground and river.

The boathouse is home to several youth rowing clubs, that in addition to teaching rowing skills aim to foster self-esteem and leadership skills and advance their participants’ educational and life goals. In addition to allowing year-round training for the youth clubs and competitive teams, the boathouse’s indoor rowing tank supports classes for all members of the public. The improved facilities of the boathouse and its sister sites, including the Ping Tom Park Boat House by Johnson & Lee Architects in Chicago’s Chinatown and Studio Gang’s second Chicago boathouse at Eleanor Park, will allow for the expansion of these programs and extend their opportunities to youth across the city.

The AIA’s national Institute Honor Awards program recognizes achievements for a broad range of architectural activity, seeking to elevate the quality of architectural practice, establish a standard of excellence, and inform the public expectations for the breadth and value of architecture.

This award bestows a significant honor to everyone involved in the WMS Boathouse project, but especially to the Studio’s partners at the Chicago Park District and the City of Chicago. In recognizing the WMS Boathouse with this award, the AIA also recognizes the importance of the work being done toward revitalizing the Chicago River—and the work still yet to come.

Studio Gang’s Eleanor Boathouse along the Chicago River’s South Branch is currently under construction and scheduled for completion later this year. The series of boathouses, together with the increased access granted by projects such the Chicago Riverwalk by Ross Barney Architects, begin to connect a number of civic spaces along the river.

It is our hope that this national award recognition for the Boathouse will increase enthusiasm for good design and public space in Chicago and invite people to share in our River’s continued ecological and infrastructural revitalization.