Description

Boston Mills, also called Thompson's Mills, is a historic water-powered grain mill located near Shedd, Oregon (Boston was the name of the historic town that disappeared when the railroad passed it by). This is another unbuilt project that I designed during graduate school. The project was to design an interpretive center for the newly created Oregon State Heritage site. The mill itself is quite unique with its massive timber frame structure, slip-form cast concrete grain silos, and water turbine powered machinery. Creating a visitor center that both complemented and celebrated the historic structure was an enjoyable challenge. When looking at historic images of the mill, time after time people have chosen to capture the essence of the place with photographs of the mill reflected in the waters of the millrace. For this reason I chose to incorporate a covered bridge into the design as a viewing platform. Due to an abundance of Douglas Fir and  scarcity of steel during World War II, western Oregon has a rich history of covered bridges with their construction that spans well into the 20th century. The Boston Mills bridge uses the classic Howe truss found in the majority of the Willamette Valley's historic covered bridges.