Macdonald & Lawrence Timber Framing Ltd.

WildPlay’s Whistler venue at Cougar Mountain offers guests a wide variety of outdoor activities that include 5 large ziplines. The largest is over 1,500 ft long and 400 ft high. M&L were asked to provide a design build solution to cover the launch and landing areas, which in winter needed constant shoveling by their staff.

Seven structures were designed, and the heavy snow loading in Whistler made this a challenge when considering the need for wide spans to allow clearance for guests, whizzing into these structures at high speed. A further design challenge was the sites themselves; located on a mountain side with poor access, so a minimum of materials to achieve the roof sizes required was a high priority for the designs.

The resulting structures are both simple and complex and it was decided that the timbers would be more cost effectively cut by CNC machine. With the timbers cut and prefinished off site, they were transported to the site and some new challenges came along; getting the precast foundations and timbers up the hill. In the end it was achieved by a variety of equipment, including a Unimog crane truck, a skidder and a helicopter (Steve was in his element), with a large telescopic forklift to help with installation.

M&L engaged a subcontractor for the ground work required, which included two large rock walls and preparing pads for all the foundations. One of the joys of working in the woods is innovating to adapt to site conditions; the stump foundation is a good example of this.