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Installing ‘The Perch’

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Deep in the woods on the east side of New York’s Hudson River there’s a view. And the view is spectacular. But on a particular property, the view is not one you can see from the house, it’s one you have to be led to. To find. And to find or be shown this view by someone who has found it, is a gift. A gift from experience on the property, the journey, a gift from nature.

And thus standing at the top of this hill, peering out to this view of the Catskill mountains is architect Barry Price and his client. A client who wants to share this view, this space, this moment with his family. To perch out on the hill and become one with the scenery.

 

“So I said ‘so what? Like a pavilion? Like a deck? What are you thinking?’,” shares Price “And the client says ‘Well I don’t know. You know I think we might want to come in here in the winter…have a glass of wine…’ and it was clear from the beginning that this was something more than just a shade structure.”

And in the end, it is more than just a shade structure. In fact, The Perch is an architect’s “folly.”

“In the history of architecture there’s a thing called a folly,” explains Price. “A folly is when an architect has an opportunity to pursue something that they’re super interested in because the building doesn’t have a specific purpose other than pursuing a particular interest or passion. So from time-to-time you get lucky enough to have a client who gives you an opportunity to go down a worm hole of something that you’re interested in.”

 

 

Which in Price’s case is carbon sequestration. “I said to him, this is a beautiful spot…we want to minimize how we disrupt it, but also we want to build thoughtfully. We want to figure out how small we can get the foundation…and then let’s make the entire building out of wood and wood-based products,” says Price.

The client agreed, and the project began. The foundation is small to minimize the use of concrete and digging needed to the site, but enough to accommodate infrastructure. “I knew pretty much from the get-go that it was going to be at least timber framed. I knew about CLTs, I knew it was something I wanted to try, and you know this kind of building was a perfect place to experiment,” finishes Price.

So after a pause, Price brought Wolcott Builders and New Energy Works to the table to create a nearly all-wood folly. 

"I love projects like this because it speaks to the roots of unique design and how wood construction can be a solution," says Luke Nagle, Construction Manager for New Energy Works. "The overhang for this home is so simple with CLTs. Using them allow for free-form thinking without the complexity of steel."

“CLTs really free you up a lot structurally,” says Price. “My engineer and I figured out how much double cantilever we could put on the structure, and once we had a shape we worked with New Energy Works to begin to understand what the constraints in terms of the CLT & glulam construction would be.”

 

 

"The benefits of glulams is that they are so structurally stable. Their strength and size is unmatched, they're 2-3 times stronger than classic timber," says Nagle. "We have the benefit of decades of experience working with large wood building components. Experience with staging and sequencing timber frame raisings, rigging large picks & calculating heavy weights, and we really like the process. It's in our blood, it's what we do."

The project installation from New Energy Works was supposed to be 12 days, but the team was able to complete the installation in 5. With good weather and dedicated partners, the project is well underway to being finished.

“Everyone at New Energy Works is a pro. Everyone is responsive,” shares Price. “I like how early I can get New Energy Works involved in a project, in terms of their comfort making cost projections with not-a-ton of information. It’s helpful for when you’re not far into engineering but you’re trying to get a handle on feasibility. And I like that it’s all in-house install—so from a predictability standpoint, you don’t have to wonder what that number is going to be.” 

 

 

As for the carbon sequestration end of the project, Price shares that it’s still a work in progress. “We know we did well to build with wood. But I’ve run the project through embodied carbon calculators and it’s a little frustrating because we just don’t know enough about the embodied carbon of different kinds of timber, we don’t have good coefficients for it. But the point was to make a building that was really carbon positive, that it was sequestering more carbon than it was using, and while I can’t tell you that yet from the calculations it is about as good as it can be. We’re using very little concrete. Very little steel other than reinforcing.”

But there’s was still one challenge to be met. “Windows are a really big problem from a carbon footprint standpoint no matter how efficient they are,” shares Price. “So these are all wood, they’re made up in Troy so they aren’t traveling too far – and this is all in the spirit of how can we reduce the carbon footprint of the building.” 

 

 

“Somebody reading this might just go ‘Oh, rich guy…lucky architect.’ For me that’s not it. For me it’s actually that all of these high-performance products represent learning opportunities for anyone who gets to touch the project…the builder, a trades-person, a laborer…if they have any curiosity about it they’re going to say ‘what is this? What’s going on here?’ So I look at all of these projects as little nodes of education. It’s an opportunity for me to develop skills that I can apply elsewhere, and I’m lucky enough to have a client who is willing to provide the opportunity," finishes Price. “But it’s just as important to me that everyone who puts a hand on it walks away with something that inspires them to try to build better.”

 

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The Perch is a pretty special project – and we can’t wait to share finished images with you. But to leave without a special call out to the team that made this place possible would be remiss. "Wollcott Builders is great to work with, and Barry Price is such a present architect when on site," added Nagle. "It makes it a pleasure to work with a team that is as invested in success as they are." The dedication on site was incredible. Our thanks to the team that brought us in to such a collaboration:

Architect: Barry Price Architecture

Builder: Mike Walsh & Rob Frieary with Wolcott Builders

Engineers: Melissa O’Leary with Proper and O’Leary Engineers

Enclosure: John Mitchell with bldgtyp

CLT & Glulam: Luke Nagle, Adam Versteeg, and Mark Musser with New Energy Works

Doors & Windows: CASE Door & Window

Cladding: Excelsior Wood

Roofing: Sheeley Roofing

Millwork: Rowan Woodworking

Interiors: Dichotomy Interiors

Photography/Videography: Franco Vogt & members of the installation crew