The WMS Boathouse at Clark Park is the premier rowing center for the City of Chicago, offering year-round training and facilities. Creating a key public access point along the river’s edge, the $8.8 million facility supports the larger movement toward an ecological and recreational revival of the Chicago River. The 22,660 sq. ft. boathouse is actually comprised of two buildings: a one-story boat house for storing rowing shells, rental kayaks, and canoes and a two-story fieldhouse with a rowing tank, small offices, a community room, and an exercise area. Sustainable design strategies have been woven throughout the building, which include small rain gardens, permeable concrete on the plaza, to reduce rainwater can run-off, and daylighting to reduce dependence on electric light fixtures.

In the fieldhouse a central VAV ground-source heat-pump serves the exercise room, community room, and support spaces. VAV boxes provide airflow modulation to each zone. The unit contains an energy recovery wheel, and the ground heat-exchanger serving the unit is comprised of 8 boreholes at 450 feet deep spaced 20 feet on center. The row-tank room in the fieldhouse is served by a separate heating only, single-zone VAV unit. Humidification is controlled in the winter by modulating the outside airflow. In the summer, the unit operates in economizer mode to “flush” the space. A high-efficiency, condensing boiler provides back-up heating for the loop and serves the hot water coil in the row-tank unit.

In the boathouse high-efficiency, condensing gas-fired unit heaters provide heating. The building is designed with operable windows and clerestory windows for natural ventilation during the summer.