Skip to main content
Home
  • Timber Engineering Services
    • Design
    • Engineering
    • 3D Modeling
    • Sustainable Building Systems
    • Exotic Building Systems
    • Inspection & Rehab
  • Portfolio
  • About
    • Overview
    • History
    • The Name
    • Team
    • Friends & Partners
  • Careers
  • Contact

Portfolio

Commercial
Residential
Testing
Trusses
Outdoor Spaces
Fun Connections
Raisings
Barns
Restoration
Bridges
Hipped roof
Rotated Hip
Midwestern Custom Timber Frames

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.

nonagon
Kirby Nonagon
John Hutton at Next Genesis Design, LLC

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 

Otto Lake
Otto Lake Boathouse
Cascade Joinery

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

Large Truss
Brobdingnagian truss
Kettle River w/ Fraserwood

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.

Swarthmore X Bracing
Swarthmore College Dining Hall
Mid-Atlantic Timber Frame

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.

Swarthmore King Post
Swarthmore College Dining Hall
Mid-Atlantic Timber Frame

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.

Swarthmore Inverted King post
Swarthmore College Dining Hall
Mid-Atlantic Timber Frame

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.

carport
King Post Carport
Smith Timberworks

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.

recip02
Soul Fire Farm
Real American Dream Home

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

recip01
Soul Fire Farm
Real American Dream Home

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

rafter scarf
Rafter Scarfs
Smith Timber Works

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

scarf
Concrete scarf

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

catspaw
Writers Theatre
Studio Gang w/ Trillium Dell

One of the most unique connections we've done - a purely mechanical connection of a undercut dovetail for slender vertical tension members. 

keyed beam
Supersized Keyed Beams
Hamlet Heavy Timber

Not much to say, other than three layers are better than two.

facelift
Facelift
Smith Timber Works

Timber framing can spiff up a strip-mall storefront - especially when a few keyed beams are thrown into the mix.

bearing
Extra Bearing

In a hidden connection, getting enough bearing for steel plate washers can sometimes be problematic.  One option is to install fully threaded screws and then bear a plate washer on their heads - more uniformly distributed load throughout a timber.

hidden steel connections
Wait a moment!
Kettle River Timberworks

Moment-resisting connections are notoriously tricky to do in timber.  They aren't perfectly rigid, wood shrinks/swells, and they can often impart all sorts of nasty cross-grain tensile stresses.  But, sometimes you hide what you can where you can. 

trusses
Parallel Chord Trusses
Mid-Atlantic Timberframes

With a nearly 90 foot clear span in the middle opening, continuous bottom chords aren't that easy to ship, so they were split in half width-wise and length-wise (at mid span) with a few novel connections.  We threw a few boslter beams into the project too, just because.

lattice
Latticework
DIRTT Environmental Solutions

An interesting office mezzanine in an upper floor a Chicago high-rise (helicopter required to get the materials onto the roof...).  The lattice is structural, as it supports Lignatur floor planks.

visible bolts
Larch
DIRTT Environmental Solutions

Larch is one of those species we love working with - great from an engineering standpoint (on par with Doug fir) - but more durable in exterior environments.

Floor framing
Loft framing
DIRTT Environmental Solutions

Floor framing for a loft needn't consist of rectalinear grids.  Using European spruce glulams fits with the non-traditional look.

Keyed bolster beams
Costa Rica Residence
Natura 51

Just because you can't get FSC certified South American hardwoods to your site that are long enough doesn't mean you can't have big spans.  As long as you are creative with bolsters and keyed beams.

Termite moat
Termite Moat
Natura 51

When building in termite prone regions (like Costa Rica), putting your post bottoms in a moat of oil to keep termites from crawling up the timbers isn't that far fetched.

Entry gate with large overhang
Lac En Ciel
Hamlet Heavy Timber

20' plus keyed beam cantilever

Sonny Carousel
Carousel

So much we could say - but, the photo speaks so much more eloquently.

Paradieschen
Paradieschen
Bruce Ofield w/ Canadian Pride Log and Timber

BC Doug fir logs provide a nice contrast to this suburban natural foods grocery store just outside of Frankfurt, Germany.  FTET provided engineering for this log structure, including design of connections and roof framing to support the living roof system.

How We Work

Leading authorities on pegged mortise and tenon connections and mechanically laminated beams, our team has been responsible for some of the timber frame community’s most impressive projects, while also advancing the science and capabilities of heavy timbers.

See our work

Where We Work

US licenses:
AK, AL, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NC, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, USVI, UT, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY

Canadian licenses:
AB, BC, ON, SK, AND YT

Contact Us

Fire Tower Client Map
© Copyright 2025 Fire Tower Engineered Timber | All Rights Reserved | Website by Monte | Log In