Notes from the Harbor Pavilion competition

We enter two or three competitions a year. Most of them we lose, and that is part of the point: a competition is a short, intense way to test an idea we would not get to try on a commissioned project.

The Harbor Pavilion brief asked for a café, public restrooms and shade on an exposed stretch of the Long Beach promenade. We had six weeks and a team of four. We spent the first week on site at different times of day, and the wind told us more than the brief did. In the afternoon it comes straight off the water and the sun is low and bright.

That led to the main idea: a steel and timber frame carrying a fabric roof that can be drawn back. On mild evenings the pavilion opens to the sky; on hot or windy afternoons it closes and becomes a deep shaded room. We tested the roof with a small working model in the studio before we drew it properly.

The jury gave us second prize. Their comments praised the shade and asked whether a moving roof could be maintained by a city parks department, which is a fair question. We had answered it with a maintenance plan, but only on the last board, where it was easy to miss.

What we keep from it: a moving roof detail we have since developed further, and a rule for the next competition. Put the hard practical answer on the first board, not the last.