Columbia River Maritime Museum - Mariners Hall

The Columbia River Maritime Museum in Astoria, Oregon, is set to undergo a transformative $30 million expansion, nearly doubling its size to enhance its role as an educational, research, and tourist destination in the Pacific Northwest. The new addition, Mariners Hall, will add 24,500 sqft of exhibit space, showcasing a vast collection of maritime artifacts and historic vessels – and even a US Coast Guard helicopter hanging from the ceiling! The expansion will attract maritime enthusiasts and researchers from around the world with a world-class timber design.

Mariners Hall showcases a curved timber roof that vaults over the exhibition area, providing a visually striking open space that can be seen from the outside through full-height windows. Curved glulam ribs spanning up to 60’ are topped with purlin-plywood panels to create an all-wood roof supported by strategically placed timber and steel columns.

Upper levels and catwalks consist of steel framing and concrete-on-steel deck supported by steel columns and tension rods attached to the roof’s glulam ribs, enabling un-shored construction and providing robust support for various exhibit configurations. The Hall is stabilized laterally with light-frame plywood shear walls, set on a foundation composed of a structural spanning slab-on-grade supported by 50’-deep driven steel piles, satisfying the site’s challenging geotechnical conditions.

Mariners Hall emphasizes an innovative and sustainable approach to structural design, nodding to the history of wood structures on the Museum’s campus, in maritime construction, and throughout the Pacific Northwest.