
The 20-by-30-foot truss structure at the Turtle Island Children’s Center in Montpelier. Photo courtesy of Turtle Island Children’s Center
Nine outdoor classrooms designed specifically for the pandemic have been installed at schools in central Vermont, thanks to a Rochester family.
Dubbed the RyanTruss, each structure is basically a series of wooden trusses topped with a corrugated fiberglass roof. Trusses are the frames traditionally employed to support a roof.
After hearing about the need for outdoor classrooms from a teacher at the Stockbridge Central School, Greg Ryan designed a structure that would be relatively cheap and easy to assemble. Ryan, who is currently riding out the winter in New Mexico, has built tiny houses and unconventional buildings.
“I have been intrigued by how strong something could be while still being incredibly light,” said the 52-year-old builder and musician.…
This article sent us by Jon Kalish.
See earlier post on the Ryan Truss here: lloydkahn.com/lightweight-inexpensive-quick-to-build-structures


(from new hampshire)
maybe the one good thing to come out of this pandemic is the push to outdoor classrooms
we have a local waldorf school that built a series of stick and canvas structures that are great
meanwhile our public school had to hire a structural engineer to certify that the party tents they had rented were safe