This past winter we had the honor of cutting and raising the timber frame for the new Acadia Gateway Center in Trenton, ME. (You can read about the raising here.) The building will welcome visitors to Acadia, giving them a place to park and then ride buses to Mountain Desert Island and Acadia National Park.
Besides the large timber frame, and its glulam curved "eyebrow" beams, the $27.7 million dollar project will include geothermal heating/cooling, rooftop solar, and electric charging stations. Earlier this July, the Maine Department of Transportation awarded nearly $23.5 million dollars to the Island Explorer bus system to electrify the buses that will bring visitors from the Gateway Center to the parks. This will allow the parks to still have the visitor traffic (38.8 million in 2023), but also cut down on the cars that visit the park and the emissions that causes; a compromise to the popularity of the parks and the wear/tear that they endure for being so popular.
As for the timber frame, we’re happy to report that it is enclosed and work on the interiors has begun. The walls and roof enclosures are SIPs, or structurally insulated panels – designed to wrap this massive timber frame, the largest to ever come through our Farmington shop.
The whole project is slated to complete in 2025, and we’re not the only ones who are excited to see it complete. “This project has been decades in the making and it’s so exciting to see it coming together,” shares the Friends of Acadia website. “It’s really an impressive space! Friends of Acadia donors who’ve supported this work can feel incredibly proud.”
Our thanks to the team working to make The Acadia Gateway Center complete, and for bringing us into such an incredible project. The project is funded by private and public support from Friends of Acadia, MDOT, the National Park Service and Federal Transit Administration.
Members of the Management Team from Friends of Acadia and Acadia National Park pose together at the under-construction Acadia Gateway Center. (Photos by Julia Walker Thomas/Friends of Acadia)
Project Team:
Architect: AECOM Technical Services
Contractor: Nickerson & O’Day, Inc.
Timber Frame: New Energy Works
Enclosure: R-Control Thermafoam
Engineer: Allied Engineering
Engineer: Fire Tower Engineered Timber
Photos: Julia Walker Thomas
