Jamaica, Mon is an online article about Home Architects’ (HA) recent project site trip to Jamaica.
A large world-class construction company is building a $28M+/- project for a huge resort in Jamaica. One of the subcontractors engaged the HA firm as backup for their shop drawing requirements for roof timber frame and stick framing. To date, a single site visit was accomplished, along with intensive discussions with the A/E of Record. HA’s expertise with timber framing is what led the roof framing subcontractor to fly HA down to the island to discuss the project.
This was welcome, as the eastern USA was in one of the coldest winters on record, and the 80*F Jamaican temperature was a welcome change. Not much time was left, after daily meetings, reviewing the various conditions for the large expansion project, now already under construction. HA said they didn’t want to share many particulars about the project publicly, as a courtesy to the other project team members and the owner.
Rand said this was the view from his room at the resort:
And while it may be hard to believe, he typically only had about a half-hour a day after all the meetings, to sit for a short while and enjoy this ocean view, before sunset came. Large ocean-going vessels would often float by, about a mile offshore, including huge cruise ships.
The resort project involves about a dozen building types of various sizes, from gazebos to significant hotel structures. Soellner noted that Jamaica has mountains, about a mile or so inland from the shoreline, although this particular project was all very close to shore, which made for a thrilling site plan so close to the ocean.
HA was delighted to have participated in discussions to advance this interesting international project. Their expertise in timber framing continues to be noticed around the world, along with their award winning architecture for custom residential-oriented projects (although they were not the design Architects on this particular project).