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SUBMITTED BY BUTLER ROGERS BASKETT
Founded in 1896, Wee Burn is a private golf and country club that boasts one of the finest golf courses in Connecticut. The club provides a full range of activities including golf, tennis, paddle tennis, swimming, bowling, bridge, skeet, and sailing through two different locations. Members have access to the main clubhouse and golf course in Darien as well as a seasonal beach club, open Memorial Day through Labor Day, located on the Long Island Sound in nearby Norwalk.
A three-tier renovation project involved renovating the main clubhouse, building a separate staff dormitory to free up space within the existing clubhouse, and renovating the beach clubhouse. In a complex dance around completion dates, seasonality, and dual facility usage, Butler Rogers Baskett Architects (BRB) developed a phased construction schedule that would allow 80 percent of the club's dining services to operate alongside the renovation.
The first phase involved the staff dormitory. "We were relocating the existing staff housing from inside the clubhouse to a separate facility" explained Chris McCagg, AIA, project designer. "In order to start the renovation and revise the main clubhouse floor plan, there was no choice but to resolve the staff relocation first." Driven mostly by schedule and budget, the architect and construction manager opted for a prefabricated building system. BRB coordinated with a manufacturer specializing in prefabricated buildings to consult on the design, estimating that the approach saved the team between two and three months of building time. The 10,000-square-foot dormitory includes wood-grain vinyl siding and vinyl windows, requiring minimal external maintenance while remaining aesthetically pleasing from the golf course.
The space liberated by removing 13 staff rooms from the main clubhouse gave the club much needed kitchen and general storage. BRB subsequently gutted and restored approximately 90 percent of the facility, refreshed fenestration and exterior finishes, and comprehensively updated the building's infrastructure and utilities. "In most clubhouses, additions begin to look like an assembly of patchwork, or what BRB's principal-in-charge, Jim Rogers referred to as, 'the add a porch, close in a porch, add a porch, close in a porch effect,'" McCagg said. "What this process...