The Alexandria Seaport Foundation is a nonprofit organization located on Old Town Alexandria’s waterfront. The organization is dedicated to transforming the lives of young adults through the art of wooden boatbuilding. Established in 1982, the Foundation initially focused on preserving Alexandria’s maritime heritage but shifted its mission in the early 1990’s to support at-risk youth. Today, the Foundation offers a hands-on Apprentice Program for individuals aged 18 to 23, providing them with essential career and life skills.
The Apprentice Program combines the craft of woodworking and traditional boatbuilding with personalized instruction and mentorship. The participants engage in this curriculum that emphasizes technical skills, workforce readiness, and personal development. The program actually operates on a distinctive floating workshop on the Alexandria waterfront.
The Foundation reached out to the FRED Division of Case Design because there were some exterior issues with the workshop building. The roof of the workshop extends out past both side walls creating covered porches along each side. These run the length of the building. Each roof is supported by a beam. Each beam is supported by a series of four posts. Each post has diagonal out-riggers attached to the beam. The tops of each post are set into the beam with a tenon joint. The outriggers are also tenoned into the post and beam. Over the years, the post bottoms started to rot. The FRED craftspeople replaced the bottoms of the posts by cutting a scarf joint into the post and removing the bottom section of each post. They then cut the same scarf in a new post section and fit it back into place. They secured each joint with a wood dowel. They also re-secured a section of the standing seam metal roof. The guys enjoyed working on the floating platform, once they acclimated to the movement.
