Sometimes rotating a post can result in easier joinery.  In this case, the braces are in the same plane as the hip/post, eliminating any compound joinery on the braces.  Plus it looks good.

When a youth summer camp in northern New Hampshire wanted a pavilion large enough to cover a basketball court, but were on a budget, we were able to work with Scratch Builders to come up with an efficient dog-leg design.  European spruce glulams helped keep the project on budget.    The frame is deceptive in size, with a 68'x106' drip line, and over 23,000lf of T&G decking.

A good one with Smith Timber Works, were they were able to steer the design from the onset with the client resulting in a great timber frame, and, also did the panelized wall framing.  

An interesting roof-top project in New York, utilizing a nice mix of spruce glulams and CLTs, along with some expressed steel is made all the more enjoyable when there is a great timber team assembled (SCPB, Odeh, KLH, Hasslacher).  

It’s not every day that we get to put our hands on a 200+ year old authentic Japanese timber frame in the U.S.. A Minka frame repaired in Japan and brought to the U.S. to be rebuilt by the same Japanese carpenters.

An extremely unique and complex nine sided reciprocal roof frame in Ashland, Oregon. Exterior walls are insulated with hempcrete and sheathed in a proprietary manner for shear capacity.

We love reciprocal frames!

Timber framer: Jiri Vrsek Deep Spring Timberworks LLC

Project Manager: Ryan Kirkby 

One frame on a larger venue on Johns Island, SC. A meeting hall composed of 45’ span dog leg bents with one bay spaced 23’ apart. Joinery includes triple lightning bolt notches for the strut into the upper rafter. The wind was high enough to induce significant uplift and reversal of internal forces so joints are held with fully threaded screws at an opposing angle to gravity loads.

A 50’ x 50’ Caribbean inspired Pool pavilion made from Southern Pine timber on Johns Island South Carolina.

Trusses have clasping and spliced double bottom chords with single columns and top chords.

When you’re building a 23’x68’ pool house  – and with 15’ eaves with 14:12 pitch - you really better be sure the reflected ceiling plan is worthy of that spatial commitment.  Hardwick Post & Beam, working with Oliver Cope architects and (vacuum) kiln-dried oak, even had fun building this during the Covid Crunch.  A ton (maybe more) of steel was (discreetly) involved in getting these high-tied and bladed roof “trusses”  to stay in place.  Thankfully, the designers prevailed in most of their many negotiations with the engineers over how they might make this easier to build.

Rafters, braces, hips, purlins...  all wanting to occupy the same space on this heavily loaded frame.  Great execution, and, great wood fiber.

In a normal structure, one might use a heavy steel girder.  But in this commercial space, a rather stout 54' parallel chord truss fit the aesthetic better.  Complete with 2-1/4" diameter high strength steel rods, the truss has several thousand screws as well holding some hidden steel plates in place.

Designed to have a forest look complete with posts branching out like trees, this Wilmington, DE project really shines.  There was a special focus on ensuring fairly straightforward joinery which allowed the students in this vocational training program to do much of the timber framing and joinery work in their old shop.

A project near Philly, with a very detail oriented design architect (Rayford W. Law out of Marblehead, MA), with a good GC and local architect, turned into a great project.  NordicLam timbers  - a lot of them - some curved - various grades - all come together well with the help of Jean-Paul.  A lot of great custom heavy metal connections as well.  A lot of work, but fun, all around.

A project near Philly, with a very detail oriented design architect (Rayford W. Law out of Marblehead, MA), with a good GC and local architect, turned into a great project.  NordicLam timbers  - a lot of them - some curved - various grades - all come together well with the help of Jean-Paul.  A lot of great custom heavy metal connections as well.  A lot of work, but fun, all around.

A project near Philly, with a very detail oriented design architect (Rayford W. Law out of Marblehead, MA), with a good GC and local architect, turned into a great project.  NordicLam timbers  - a lot of them - some curved - various grades - all come together well with the help of Jean-Paul.  A lot of great custom heavy metal connections as well.  A lot of work, but fun, all around.

Renovations of historic timber structures are always a unique challenge. 1860s era Detroit Central Market Pavilion complete with original pine timbers and unique cast iron columns. Remedies to meet current codes includes many tension rods and custom hangers, moment resistance steel columns, intricate concrete foundations, and upgraded roof beams utilizing composite action with original timbers

Hempcrete  (along with hemp batt & blown-in insulation), coupled with a compound roof framing, add a bit of flare to what is otherwise conventional stick framing. 

Richard Berg, an architect with an unusually long and intimate relationship with timber framing, designed this pavilion for the Children’s Hospital in Seattle.  It is intended to provide comfort and calm for people undergoing the stresses involved with having beloved children being treated for serious health issues.  The frame was cut and installed by a team of pro-am volunteers, including John Sweet.

The world's largest paddle is 110'-6" long, and made from approximately 22,000lb of white cedar.  And yes, it has a bent shaft; any one who has paddled a canoe will attest to the superiority of the design.

An upstate NY residential CLT project, where all of the walls, interior and exterior, were framed with CLT.  And good thing.  With the rather interesting floor plan, pretty much all wood fiber in the building was put to use.

So what to do with a big carport, with substantially undersized (sagging) ridge and eave logs?  Hang the middle of the eaves off a king post truss... and then turn the ridge into an inverted king post truss as well.   Amazingly efficient - I only wish we had come up with the idea.

A little bit of everything: round poles for columns, parallel chord trusses, horizontally curved glulams, traditional joinery, and a bit of steel all working together.

When a community farm in TN needed a bit of covered space, the TFG stepped up in a big way.  This is deceptively large, with a proper NBA basketball court being able to fit under roof, without any obstructed shot lines.

Good employees deserve a great break room, even when you have to design for hurricane force winds, like this spectacular FL project.

This 12 sided on-farm classroom has a reciprocal roof with a hip roof over top.

This 12 sided on-farm classroom has a reciprocal roof with a hip roof over top.

CLTs are a hot topic in commercial construction lately, with a few clunky designs built here and there.  But on a residential front, they are being well employed in a variety of structures, including living space above a 3-car garage.  "Mass timber" isn't just for massive projects.

When given a chance, we try and sneak as many fun details into a project as we can.  Keyed beams, dragon ties, curved glulams, space trusses, to name a few. 

A breathtakingly beautiful new timber framed dining hall awaits the arrival of summer campers at Gwynn Valley, a children's summer camp in Brevard, NC.

Some amazing scissor trusses for a family education center at Hart Square, in Vale, NC.  Timbers were so long, we had to use glulams! 

Most think of cherry as a furniture wood, but, we can use it for timber frames as well.  But make sure you have a frame that is interesting enough to justify it!

A wonderful second generation client with two young children wanted their existing corner minimart to serve as an art studio, and, of course, have the new living quarters upstairs cantilever over the existing brick walls. 

A large clear span decagon roof is a fun challenge in its own right, but when you need 11 posts around the perimeter to make room for a fireplace, you can have some interesting connections at the "Y".  We won't tell all our secrets.

Functionally, CLTs aren't any more exciting than giant sheets of plywood, but, with some fun good design and detailing, they can make for some pretty dramatic spaces.

You'd think building a cabana for a large resort on a Caribbean island would require designing for hurricane force winds.  In this case, earthquake activity actually was more critical (note the volcano in the background).  Although, if the earth shakes that badly from a volcanic eruption – there may be bigger things to worry about (did I mention the volcano in the background?)

Crane day is always exciting, especially when we worked on the raising plan and the lift is a Burr arch covered bridge.

Butt swells on cedar logs make for a nice stable pedestal.  Even better when you mate two together and make a nice base as well.  Attached to a root ball of concrete, of course. 

Shear plug failure and a ductile yielding/failure of all-thread rods into the end of a Douglas fir glulam.  For this large commercial project, we needed to develop and conduct a testing program for steel rods epoxied into end-grain.  West System 610 provided the results we were looking for.

A 700lb pick over the top of the building can max out even the largest of cranes.

Steel stringers supporting wood treads can be an effective paring, especially when you are looking for a thin profile. 

The best spot to break lower and upper rafters isn't always over the support.

Some of the Fire Tower crew examining connection details atop a 170' man lift.  Notice the Mustang convertible included for a sense of scale. 

A WWII blimp hangar is the definition of big.  157' high, 234.5' arch clear span, 1000' long building.  (i.e. the roof covers 7 acres and uses 2.7e6 BF of wood)

When left to our own devices, this is the sort of thing we do on our personal projects.  (Joe's grindbygg frame)

Our hydraulic equipment was getting a work out, post-tensioning a laminated bridge deck in Tulsa.