This Memorial Day weekend, visitors to the Fire Island Pines will find the prominent waterfront site long occupied by the Pavilion, the island’s legendary dance club and social hub, to be little more than a forlorn lot containing sand, ashen debris and memories of giddier times.

But the owners of the club, which was gutted by a fire in November, have vowed to rebuild the Pavilion, an emotional touchstone for generations of gay men who found liberation, and sometimes romance, on its cavernous dance floor. They have released plans for the new building, which they say will reopen in time for the 2013 season.

The re-envisioned Pavilion, starting with a welcome bar at dockside, is to host the traditional summer bacchanalia that made it famous, but, in a sign of the changing social and political climate, it will also become a festive venue for weddings for the men who travel to the Pines each summer.