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Authentic Volume – Custom Home

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This modern farmhouse from architect Niels Schoenfelder and homebuilder Prutting + Co. was designed to complement a series of free-standing barns from the 1920’s on an expansive farm property in Upstate New York. The uniquely styled home was crafted to blend into the surrounding landscape and serve as the primary residence for its homeowner.

 

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“You will have to imagine, it is a large 127-acre property and in the immediate vicinity of this house you have two large barns from the 1920’s, beautiful barns that are more architecturally finished than typical barns from that era, with stick frame construction that are free standing on a large expanse of meadow,” explained architect Niels Schoenfelder of Mancini Enterprises PVT LTD. This house completes that picture in a sense as it was designed to be like a smaller cousin to those two big original barns, which explains the shape and the simplicity of the homes structure.”

 

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“The original structural design was very robust and called for a lot of steel work which we felt could be handled with timber alone. We felt it was appropriate to bring in New Energy Works to guide us on what timber could handle on a stand-alone structural standpoint, and just used steel where we needed it.” -Jack Truman of Prutting + Co

 

Starting with an original design concept that featured a steel frame with timber accents, the project evolved beyond its initial structural specification to include a custom finished Douglas fir timber frame to achieve the homes volume with much less pronounced steelwork that was first intended.

 

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“Jack Truman from Prutting + Co, the builder on the project, said to us early on that we should bring in New Energy Works, they will have ideas on the project, and they will also have the capacity to engineer it, not just to build it,” said Niels. “New Energy Works came onto the project at that point and engineered the timber frame components and spoke with the other engineers on our end to get everything else sorted out. That was really the beginning of this project.”

 

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This home is a very unique piece of architecture that had a lot of client involvement throughout the process, which I think added to the experience of building the home and made it more rewarding for our team. The images kind of speak for themselves, it took a lot of craftspeople to generate the finished product, which is spectacular.” -Jack Truman of Prutting + Co.

 

Featuring an expressive first floor volume tailored to meet the needs of the individual homeowner with efficient simplicity, the high ceilings and custom finished Douglas fir timbers above hide functional guest quarters hidden below for friends and family to enjoy.

 

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“The upper volume that contains the living, dining, kitchen, powder room, with a master suite and study on top. When you enter the house, it does not really feel much bigger than that, it is very tall, but only a limited amount of floorspace. It is not excessively large in footprint, which is what the client was after,” Niels explained. “The homeowner felt they would be mostly alone on the farm and family might occasionally visit from the city. The concept was based on that, that the upper volume could be inhabited by a single person or a couple. In the substructure, which you don’t see much of in the photos, it looks like a walk out basement, that is where the guest bedroom and amenities are, that square footage is tucked under the home, so you don’t really see it. From the beginning the client wanted the house to be almost like a cottage, not too big, so that is where this structure satisfied not only the visuals of the site with the large antique barns, but also the vision of the client to have a volume to live in instead of a large suite full of rooms.” 

 

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“This was one of my all-time favorite projects. Part of it was about the team on the project, the builder, architect, New Energy Works, it was one of the most collaborative teams I have ever worked on. Just a great, wonderful project all the way through, and we are super thankful to have been part of it.” -Eric Fraser of New Energy Works

 

Our team here in Farmington New York describes working on this project as one of the most enjoyable collaborative experiences they have had in recent memory, and the feeling is mutual. From the team at Prutting + Co., to the architect, and through the group subcontractors that worked on the home, everyone involved brought their best to this home and relished in the process of creating such a unique high-craft structure.

 

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“I think that working with New Energy Works on this home went extremely well at all points in the project, very happy with not only the professionalism but the drive to get things right and the joy that brings really made it a great collaboration,” Niels exclaimed. “This was not only with us, but also the coordination behind the scenes with the builder, engineers, metal fabricators etc. it was really smooth.”

 

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This home is unique in any context, but especially for the rural area of New York State in which it is located. The high level of design, authenticity, and ambition of the project along with its distinctive look were recently celebrated in Architectural Digest Magazine, where the deep-rooted sense of artistry and craft exemplified in the home were explored in depth with the architect and homeowner. 

“For me as the architect, the clients, and really everybody that has physically been to the house, the success of this project is when you stand in the home and experience the feeling of authenticity of the structure, the bones, the timber, that is what makes the house successful,” Niels explained. “The pictures are very pretty, taken by a great photographer, but the feeling of actually being there is impossible to capture.”

 

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“Niles Schoenfelder is a super talent, and his team was excellent, as was the client who understood the value of good design and patronizing good architects, and then allowed us to hire the appropriate people to craft a spectacular house. We are all fortunate to have worked with such good people and clients on this one.” -Jack Truman of Prutting + Co.

 

Pruding + Company spoke very highly of New Energy Works from the beginning, and I am very grateful that they made that connection,” Niles surmised. “The project really renders tangible that when people come together in the spirit of collaboration & craft it turns out spectacular in the end. That is the real success of this project.”

 

 

Project Credits:

 

Architect: Niels Schoenfelder Architect

Builder: Prutting + Company Custom Builders

Engineer: Fire Tower Engineered Timber 

Photography: Björn Wallander

 

See our case study for this project: Authentic Volume | New Energy Works

 

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