Camp Lutherwood Dining Hall Expansion near Cheshire, Oregon

Location: Camp Lutherwood, near Cheshire, Oregon
Client/Owner: Camp Lutherwood
Partners: Urban Collaborative (architectural consultant)
Year: 2025–2026, in design
Size/scale: New interior space and covered entry at the front, storage and service areas with attic space at the back, and new storage along the existing walls
JBE services: Structural design and permit drawings and calculations for Lane County; assessment of the existing building; kitchen and floor plan layouts
Sector: Faith & Community

The timber-framed dining hall at Camp Lutherwood near Cheshire, Oregon, before its expansion

The challenge

Camp Lutherwood’s dining hall is the heart of the camp, and the camp had outgrown it. Expanding it is the next step in an approved master plan for the whole camp. The addition has to tie into a building that is already in daily use: a timber-framed hall with exposed wood trusses and clerestory windows.

Before designing anything new, we studied the existing structure to see how the addition would connect to it. That research turned up conditions in the existing building that nobody had expected, and they had to be dealt with before the expansion could move forward.

Project photos

What we did

We documented the existing conditions, explained what we found and what it meant for the project, and gave the camp our recommendations for addressing them alongside the new work.

For the expansion itself, we are designing a new front space with a covered entry, storage and service areas at the back with attic space above, and added storage along the existing exterior walls. We worked with the camp and its architectural consultant on roof options, a proposed kitchen layout and floor plans, and on the camp’s land use approval with Lane County. The finished drawings and calculations are being prepared for permit with the Lane County Building Department.

The result

Lane County issued the building permit in June 2026. The camp will get a larger, better-organized dining hall that keeps the character of the building it already has, with the existing-condition issues addressed as part of the same project instead of being discovered later in construction.