Overview

Cary Summers, who headed Herschend Family Entertainment from 1992 to 1998, was hired as the lead consultant for the Ark Encounter. Patrick Marsh, who helped design exhibits for the Creation Museum and previously designed attractions for Universal Studios Florida, was part of the planning and design team. The Troyer Group, a construction firm in Mishawaka, Indiana, was contracted to oversee construction of the ark, which was constructed by Amish builders using traditional timber framing techniques. In total, over 1,000 craftsmen were employed in the ark’s construction. As possible, board pulling was used rather than steaming. Steel nails were used to conform with building code regulations. Lighting at the Ark Encounter is designed to resemble oil lamps.
While the builders originally planned to hold the ark together with wooden pegs, modern building codes required the builders to use steel fasteners, thus 95 tons of metal plates and bolts were used to connect the wood together. The electric lighting inside was designed to look like oil lamps. According to AiG, the Ark Encounter is the largest timber frame structure in the United States. AiG considered twelve different possible lengths for the biblical cubit, and AiG chose to use a length of 20.1 inches (51 cm); this produced plans for an ark measuring 510 feet (155 m) long, 85 feet (26 m) wide, and 51 feet (16 m) high. The Ark Encounter consists of approximately 3,300,000 board feet (7,800 m3) of wood. The framing of the ark consists mostly of Engelmann spruce, while the exterior is made of pine; some of the logs were as long as 50 feet (15 m) long and 36 inches (91 cm) in diameter. The park’s structures and infrastructure were constructed using environmentally friendly Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certified methods, including geothermal heating, rainwater capture, active and passive solar heating. The Washington Post wrote that the decision to use such techniques was exemplary of “a fundamental shift in how religiously conservative Christians think of two basic biblical ideas: dominion and stewardship”. Hydroponic gardens produce lettuce to feed the animals housed at the attraction’s petting zoo, as well as the landscape plants for the Ark Encounter and Creation Museum. Construction crews began clearing timber from the site late in 2012 in order to remove the shagbark hickory trees before the endangered Indiana bats migrated to the area to nest in them. Much of the wood used to build the Ark Encounter was sourced from renewable forests or trees infested by beetles.