Florence Masonic Lodge Porte-Cochere, Florence, Oregon

Location: Florence, Oregon
Client/Owner: Florence Masonic Lodge No. 107; Pacific Structures (design-build contractor)
Partners: Truss manufacturer (roof trusses, designed by others); Lane County Building
Year: 2018, built
Size/scale: Covered drive-through about 24 feet across and 12 feet high, on steel columns and beams with a hipped wood truss roof
JBE services: Structural design, permit drawings and calculations, building permit application and plan review support with Lane County
Sector: Faith & Community

Florence Masonic Lodge building and entry drive where the new porte-cochere was planned, Florence, Oregon

The challenge

The Masonic lodge in Florence wanted a porte-cochere, a covered carriage porch, so members and visitors arriving by car could get in and out under cover. The structure had to stand on its own beside the lodge building, with open sides for traffic, carrying a hipped roof of prefabricated wood trusses.

An open canopy like this has no walls to brace it, so the columns and beams themselves must resist wind and earthquake loads. The site is in a high seismic design category, close to the coast.

Project photos

What we did

We designed the porte-cochere around steel moment frames: steel columns and beams with rigid connections that keep the canopy stable without diagonal bracing. We analyzed the structure under the 2014 Oregon Structural Specialty Code, comparing seismic forces for the site against design wind forces, and sized the frames, connections and foundations, with the roof trusses coordinated with the truss manufacturer’s engineering.

The permit set covered general notes and material specifications, the foundation plan, roof framing plan, elevations and sections, concrete details and moment-frame connection details. We also prepared the building permit application and plot plan and met with Lane County during plan review. When the county asked how the wood nailers attach to the steel beams, we answered with welded threaded studs and countersunk bolts.

The result

The drawings went through Lane County plan review in the fall of 2018 and construction followed, with the slab poured by early December 2018. The lodge gained a sheltered arrival point designed as a self-supporting steel frame.