Calvino Architecture Studio & CNC Works

Special thanks to Jean Maurice Nakhla of J Nakhla Design, Robert Berg of Custom Maintenance Concepts, and Derek Iampieri of DVI Home Services for collaboration on the lifting, hoisting, climbing, and otherwise challenging tasks of swapping out the beams. Cheers guys!

Framing up next.

The Cypress Glu-Lam beams , in service for 10 years have met their match with the Florida sun and salt weather, being at the mouth of the Little Manatee River at Tampa Bay. The replacement will involve dismantling the cypress framed screen enclosure, including the 4 L-shaped sections of the Glu-Lam Beams. The replacements will be pre-finished, aluminum extrusion truss-beams, then the same bronze, pre-finished aluminum screen extrusion framing.

The Project involves design for wind-loading, the structural design of the truss, and the 2x8, 2x4, & 2x2 framing. The truss/beams will be prefabricated in 2 pieces made of an 8" channel for the top & bottom chords, double 2x2 angles for the diagonals, then pre-finished, 0.040 aluminum sheet for a stress-skin cover sheet to create a box section that re-creates the shape of the original cypress Glu-lam beams.

Because of the limited access to the site at the water's edge, it is not possible to get a crane back to the poolside of the property. So, removal of the existing glu-lams will need to be done one at a time with prefabricated truss/cranes mounted atop adjacent beams. Each of the existing beams will be cut in two at the "knee", the lowered to ground level where they can be transported to a trailer & trucked off in search of a new home.