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Outer Banks Pavilion

~Engineering a Timber Pavilion on the Roanoke Sound~

Sixteen timber piles, eight feet of salt water, and a forty-foot cone of Douglas fir on North Carolina's Outer Banks.

Project and photo credit @newenergyworks timberframers and the Madman Himself, Master Builder, Daryl Hood.

Most of our work rises out of the ground. This one rises out of the water.

At the end of a long raised walkway, out in a salt marsh on Roanoke Sound off North Carolina's Outer Banks, stands a new timber pavilion we had the privilege of engineering. It is forty feet in diameter, built and raised more than eight feet above the salt water, and it is, plainly, a beautiful thing.

The structure is honest about what it is. Sixteen forty-foot Southern Pine poles are driven deep into the salt-marsh mud to find their footing. Above them, a Douglas fir roof structure fans out into a true cone — 400 individually milled trapezoidal planks, each grooved on both edges and joined with custom splines so the geometry closes cleanly the whole way around. Every piece had to be cut to plan, because a cone does not forgive improvisation.

The engineering problem was the environment as much as the form. Piles in soft marsh, a corrosive saltwater setting, coastal wind, and a conical timber roof with no interior structure to hide behind — all of it had to be resolved so the architecture could stay pure and the thing could stand for generations. That is the kind of problem we live for: where the structure is the design, not a compromise to it.

It was also a genuine collaboration across the country. New Energy Works designed and fabricated the timber frame out of their Oregon and New York shops; builder Daryl Hood set it in place with one helper and a great deal of nerve; and GEBAU provided the structural engineering. Sixty hours of phone calls and a hundred emails between people who, in some cases, had never met — and it went together right.

We do extraordinary buildings, in the high country and, occasionally, over the ocean. If you are imagining something hard and beautiful, we would love to help you build it. 

check out our work featured in Modern in Denver's Summer 2025 issue!

in memoriam

Dear Friends of John and Our Extended GEBAU Family:

It is with great sadness and reverence that we share the passing of our founding partner John David Arndt.  John died peacefully on Saturday, April 26, 2025 in the care of hospice and presence of his partner and two daughters in Boca Raton, Florida.  He battled a progressive lung condition for the last couple years.

John retired about four years ago and spent more time in his beloved Hope Town abode, dropping into Boulder for stints when the weather was fair, and visiting his grandkids in Seattle.  He continued working with GEBAU for special and ongoing projects, and his contributions were always invaluable.  John was unparalleled in our engineering community, and in the greater community in so many ways.

We already feel lonely without him, but we recognize what a gift and a privilege it was to have him in our lives, to work alongside him, learn from him (technically, stylistically, and philosophically), and to witness the grace, skill, courage, spirit, and joy with which he worked and lived. John consistently made great challenges appear effortless.  John will be missed, but his impact will persist for a long, long time.  We will strive to honor his extraordinary work and legacy well into the future.

always learning

#UPDATE!  Old Firehouse is open for business!