Sneak Peek: The River View at Occoquan Regional Park
Nestled along the banks where Virginia’s Occoquan River gently flows into the Potomac River, you’ll find a beautiful and modern event space that gives a nod to the areas rich culture and history. The River View is being constructed at Occoquan Regional Park, which is part of the NOVA (Northern Virginia) park system. This wedding and event facility features 4200 square feet of custom 1×6 exterior siding milled from Goodwin’s River-Recovered® Heart Cypress Select grade. Additionally, another 1000 linear feet of River-Recovered Heart Cypress Select grade lumber is used as cladding on the site’s stand-alone pavilion.
Heart cypress is the perfect material for this project given its superior exterior use properties and the area’s documented history with the species. Captain John Smith of Jamestown Colony fame made a circumnavigation of the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries in 1608. Smith recounts in his journals seeing bald cypress trees as much as 18ft in circumference, and up to 80 feet tall without a branch. Some trees were so large that a canoe made from a single tree could hold 40 men. The foyer of the River View will be referred to as the 1608 room and will detail Smith’s voyage with story boards and a large compass rose on the floor.
Senior Associate, Lisa Andrews with GWWO Architects in Baltimore, Maryland specified River-Recovered Heart Cypress after visiting the Naples Botanical Garden and seeing the wood Goodwin milled for that project. The work of GWWO Architects is well-known in Florida. In Gainesville, the firm designed the Cade Museum of Creativity and Invention. At the River View, A&D Construction is installing the siding, and Forrester Construction is the general contractor. Visit the Cade Museum
Special thanks to Hospitality & Event Sales Manager, Cori Talbot and Events Coordinator, Carson Eonta for sharing these photos of the project under construction. And, stay tuned….you’ll soon see more photos and information about River View’s completion and grand opening in a future article.
For a deeper look at this exquisite multipurpose event space visit here!
