Somerset Architecture & Masterplanning – Smithfield, ME

Sorensen Partners was Architect and Masterplanner for 42-acre Camp Somerset for Girls in Smithfield, Maine. Our masterplanning work included the dining hall, gymnasium, office and health buildings, theater, social hall, cabins, creative buildings, courts, fields, signage, fences, and layout of roads, paths, and utility infrastructure. Sorensen Partners was Architect for the 9,600 square-foot dining hall and the cabins – Phase 1 of construction. Other elements of the masterplan were built by the owners according to the masterplanned locations. Historic Camp Somerset operated between 1921 and 1986. The directors of Somerset have resurrected the spectacular site as a premier outdoor learning environment.

Civil and building engineering firm AE Hodsdon Engineers of Waterville, Maine is our professional collaborator, providing detailed permitting and technical work on the site and systems.

The site is designed around an historic allee of white pine, which will welcome visitors today as it did over the last century. The new buildings become a part of their rustic setting with shapes and materials inspired by nature and by the vernacular architecture of rural Maine.

Our goal was to create architecture worthy of being a part of the camp’s branding:

The new camper bunks are at the heart of the social experience of Camp Somerset. The bunks include all of our and the directors’ best ideas – like a porch, mailbox, mud room, shoe bench, and chalk board – to enhance bunk life.

The new dining hall is the camp’s main culinary and activity building as the camp adds additional facilities. Its bathrooms can be accessed from the exterior patio, and it’s main hall and porch divide the interior into activity zones. Food delivery access is from the back, tucked safely away from the zones campers are walking in.

Construction of the dining hall and camper bunk exteriors was finished in January 2018: