The elegant symmetry of this lakeside estate is the centerpiece of a legacy camp that will house generations of family and friends. Melding custom timbers and metalwork, the home celebrates both strength and warmth. Centered around a substantial stone fireplace and towering window wall, there are ample views of the water and woods waiting to be discovered in every nook in the house.

The homeowner recalls, “I've always loved timber framing. My better half, Brian, has been out west and loved the style, look, and feel of the Colorado Mountain Lodge. When we decided to build, being in such a beautiful area in Northern Michigan, we thought, ‘oh, a timber frame would be a perfect fit for that kind of feel’, where it's majestic, but it's warm and it's cozy. 

We’ve been on the lake for decades. So, it’s really a kind of family compound. I have memories of the lake since I was five. I’ve got 29 first cousins, so we have a really large family. My cousins would come up every summer, and we would have obstacle courses on the beach and skiing, tubing, and campfires at night and really just a lot of good family bonding time.”

The formative family times spent on the property became the blueprint for the homeowner’s desire to create a thoughtful rearrangement of the grounds. With a bit of patience and ingenuity the vision came into focus for an expansive property that would include the parent’s cottage, the homeowners new build, and the connecting land that ties the entire complex together.

The manager of our East Coast design team, Kyle Barber, RA, CPHC, NCARB has recently swapped roles. While Barber is the architect for our client’s high craft home dreams, when he and his wife made the decision to design and build their own house, he got to experience the process he has immersed himself in from the other side.

Barber says, “It's hard to design your own house, because when you're designing other people's houses, it's sort of easy to say, ‘Oh, yeah, this is what you should do,’ or ‘Maybe you should do it differently next time.’ ‘Here's what you should do over here’, or whatever, right? For my house, it's like, ‘I'm only doing this once’. It gives me a whole new perspective, by being the homeowner, on what the homeowner goes through on that side of what we do.” 

“I'm the architect of record, I engineered it, most of it. I’m the GC. I'm a certified passive house consultant. And, this time, I’m the homeowner.”

A wearer of many hats, Barber began this massive undertaking with the goal of building a legacy home for his family. Barber is passionate about high-performance building and an advocate for using sustainable materials in the design + build environment. He strove to adhere to his beliefs while conceptualizing his own legacy home.

“I think the catalyst was that I'm at a point in my career where I understand what I think is the right way to build a house for health, comfort, and durability. This was really about providing a legacy home for our family and providing a house that I feel is not only comfortable, good looking, and long-lasting, but also ultimately long term and healthy in terms of the materials we're using and the air quality for my kids as they grow up.”

“My wife and I went back and forth on if we wanted to build a new home or retrofit an existing house. The environmental activist side of me said we should renovate our existing home and not build a new house. There was another part of me that said it was going to take a lot of money to get to get it where we wanted it to be, doing a renovation. It was a big conversation in our house for a long time”

In collaboration with several partners including Barry Price Architecture, William Wallace Construction, Sash & Frame LLC, 475 Supply, Hopkins Architect+, the New Energy Works enclosure team invited folks to a live construction site in Woodstock, NY for an insider’s view of a recently enclosed home, and two more in progress. 

Providing exclusive opportunities to speak with the architect, builder, material suppliers, and New Energy Works crew, the Muddy Boots Tour at Zena Road welcomed 40 guest to see our high-performance enclosure team and the DfMA team (Design for Manufacturing and Assembly) in action. 

“The Zena project is unique in that it’s not a development but a subdivision being subdivided by a group of friends,” shares architect on the project, Barry Price AIA. 

“I thought the Muddy Boots Tour at Zena was really special with time to speak with people while moving between the buildings,” New Energy Works Building Systems Specialist Steve Hessler says. “We can give folks a tour of our off-site panel assembly shop but it’s hard to understand the site benefits and the skill of our installation team without seeing it in person. So, for these people to be able to see panels flying, was a treat. It was really well received.”

New Energy Works Construction Division is Rochester Business Journal’s 2025 Leaders in Construction & Real Estate award winner for home building. Our timber frame project, Inclusion in Motion, is a 2025 Top Projects award honoree. 

“We are excited to join a distinguished collection of other Rochester area developers, architects, contractors, and partners who practice innovation, forward thinking building methods with our home building leader award,” says Eric Fraser President of East Coast New Energy Works. “But the real honor is having Inclusion in Motion win a top project. This radically inclusive playground and pavilion was a passion project for our internal team with its impact on the community. We’re glad to see it honored.” 

“My wife wanted a timber frame or log type home, says homeowner Kevin Knisley, “We kicked around ideas and both of us fell in love with the timber frame aesthetics and the look. We don’t see too many of them in Michigan. I’ve always liked the design and the feeling, that was the main thing. When I built my last house here, I wanted to make it a timber frame house.”

On the bucolic shoreline of Lake Lapeer, Michigan, the Knisley’s built their dream home. “We’ve always wanted to do a timber frame, we love the design, it makes us feel like we’re up North or in the mountains, Montana, or Idaho – but we’re in Michigan, and on the waterfront too."

A special combination and one that is not typical to the region. But then again, the Knisley’s are anything but a typical client. In addition to working with heavy timber, being close to the water was a critical part of the construction of the Knisley’s new home. Because Kevin is a retired airline pilot, he needed an aquatic runway to land his seaplane.

“I knew based off of some of the research and due diligence I had done that I wanted to use New Energy Works,” Knisley says. “They’re a professional group of people; I looked forward to working with them. I knew that they were good, seasoned, veteran journeyman framers and good old fashion wood workers. 

“We did a layout that I took to my architect, and he drew up. Then we got together with New Energy Works. Your architectural team and my architectural team together came up with a final design.” 

That collaboration resulted in an expansive and custom home that postures like an estate but feels like a lodge. “Big timbers are a real masculine type feeling, heavy timbers the bigger the better,” Knisley says. “They look beefy and are very structurally sound and something that’s going to last not just 50 to 100 years but 150 to 200 years.”

We love customers who come back to us. It gives us the chance to catch up, check in, and rekindle the collaboration and memories that we created together. Once we have built a partnership with our clients through our shared work on a project, it’s never the end, but the continuation of a lifelong friendship. 

Balancing the moving parts of any home building project takes expertise. New Energy Works General Contracting team works alongside clients and tradespeople as partners, all working together to make a vision a reality – and in a way that is good for people and the planet. 

Site superintendent Jake Desmarais is the lead for our general contracting team at a high craft build above Keuka Lake in the Finger Lakes region of New York. “This project is super exciting for me to see what we are capable of. We are known for our timber frames, but this project is exploring and illustrating to future clients what all our capabilities are outside of timber frames. And I think that’s exciting.”

“The home is very modern. It’s not a timber frame. And yet it has intricate details and high-craft needs which feels really familiar to what we’re great at. It’s been a fun one—with the modern motif and contemporary vibe of the home there is a lot of coordination, and the sequence of the project is atypical to our traditional build.”

For New Energy Works project manager, Evan Clow, this timber frame porch is a project to remember, because it was his first. “I started as a sales assistant with New Energy Works right around the time that we were selling the job. So, I was making the model and doing some of the sales work around the porch. That was cool because I got to be a part of the project from cradle to finish.”

The clients had relocated from the Midwest to Portland, Oregon and had always dreamed of a timber frame home. With both children now grown, staying in Portland was a priority so they could be close to grandchildren. With timber frame still in their hearts, the clients decided to invest in a space the family could enjoy together.

“The clients had a plan to do something unique to make their suburban home stand apart from the crowd a bit. A special place in their backyard that their entire family could share,” Clow shared.  “They decided, ‘Let’s just go the full nine yards and build the most awesome timber frame porch for our backyard!’ We drew up a few pretty elaborate frames for porches that we could fit into one spot, and they were excited by the results.”

Clow says, “The clients, were very engaged and wanted to be a part of the process as much as possible."

They were so excited for their new timber porch that they visited our McMinnville mill to witness their timbers being cut. That doesn’t happen often, and it was really special to be able to share that moment with them.

Timber Frame champion for this job, Seth Douglas recalled some of the challenges raising a frame in a suburban environment. “Working in occupied space and in urban areas poses unique site consideration and raising challenges. No access for heavy machinery meant this frame was unloaded, assembled, and raised the old-fashioned way, by hand.”

Our Farmington, New York campus recently had a visit from Tennessee clients who are looking to move from their current dwelling and into a hybrid timber frame home high in the Blue Ridge Mountains. We love taking folks through the shops and talking wood with families who are on their home building journey.

Our clients purchased 400 acres of Appalachian Mountain property bordered on both sides by National Park lands. Their dream is for a high craft home that exhibits their love of elegance with the privacy and rustic opulence of a mountain chalet.

New Energy Works West Coast Architect David Shirley explains, “We’ve been working with these clients for over a year now, as the site work is completed, to get prepped and brainstorm the design. The clients wanted to build on the top of the mountain, so instead of leveling the summit of the peak, they built a retaining wall system to create a large flat landing space for the home. There is a huge amount of engineering work and roads, plus the retaining walls needed to make this project feasible.”

“The house will feature 360-degree views at 3000’ above sea level. Directly behind the home is a National Park to the North. The South goes down to the main valley and up the other side of the mountain to more National Park lands—so it’s sandwiched in nature.”

The home is in its formative stages, with collaboration and idea sharing the central focus. The clients really wanted connection to the land and people who live there. It turns out Shirley, who grew up in Tennessee is very familiar with the build location. It turns out that as a kid he spent much time four-wheeling on the land where the clients are building their dream home.

In this episode of Bridging the Gap, our founder and CEO Jonathan Orpin joins host Todd Weyandt to discuss blending old-world craftsmanship and forward-thinking sustainability.

Our friends at Rural Builder featured our Construction Manager Luke Nagle in an article about how to prevent construction callbacks. 

“I worked with these clients for better than 15 years. We worked on their main house and this latest project as a secondary building. They own a bunch of contingent lots, and they all have a great view,” explains architect Barry Price. Their intent was to make this a multigenerational compound, so the project was built for so the kids and grandkids could use the main house, and the client would still be nearby.”

Price continued, “So, they had the land, I knew the family, and I knew that what mattered to them was the view. Then it really came down to finding a spot. In this area, and every town defines it differently, but when you’re above 1,200 feet above sea level you have to go to the planning board to get approval on the site plan and the design in general. In terms of the site disturbance, controlling drainage, material colors, and to minimize how much of it pops out of the hillside; glass reflectivity, shielding lighting, all that stuff. I’ve been down that road dozens of times. Looking at it with all of that in mind, I knew I had to find a spot where I wouldn’t be clearing trees. I knew that I had to make a case that I was minimizing disturbance to the site.”

Because of extenuating factors, including the location and access, using a high-performance enclosure was the perfect remedy for these issues. The build site was a regal roost high up the side of a hillock in the Catskill Mountains, situated on a rocky slope, surrounded by sun, sky, and trees. It’s from this spot that the high efficiency cottage reaches out from its cantilevered perch toward a panorama of mountain summits.

“The barn is the first piece of a much bigger master plan, “says architect Mark Finlay. “It was built as a place that the homeowner could have privacy, it was to be a little get-away for her. She loved the idea of doing a sort of modern barn structure, and the whole master plan was designed so that she would get that.”

The client’s main house is located next door to their auxiliary barn build. They demoed an existing structure on the lot just adjacent to their home and then began to personalize the property in a large-scale way. Following the preparations of the lot, construction began in earnest on the client’s contemporary get-away barn.

“She really liked certain barns that I had designed with the structure expressed on the inside,” Finlay recalls. “New Energy Works was great. The hardest thing was getting the right color; the color was critical to the homeowner.”

Our team worked diligently at getting the hue provided by Finlay and his client translated to perfect timber tone for the project. Finlay continued, “There’s a double layer of timber on the roof and the color of the timbers is very specific, sort of a California, she wanted a kind of glazed wood with a softer look.”

This look is accomplished through the buttery timber finish that sits in comfortable contrast with subtle black steel embellishments on both the light fixtures and timber joinery. There is an abundance of natural light diffused throughout the space emanating from the dramatic floor-to-ceiling windows found in the living space and echoed in the centerpiece of the barn – the large glass enclosed porch.

“My grandfather bought this piece of property in 1942. He hunted it his whole life and so did my dad. When I was a little kid, my dad took me to the property all the time with my mom and sister,” reminisced the homeowner of their family cabin in the woods. 

The storied history of this long family-owned Allegheny property has deep roots embedded into its rolling hills and rich soil. 

The land had been forested, cleared for homes and agriculture, and then abandoned during the depression. Families started returning in the 1950’s for recreation while various state-run programs began to caretake and reforest the land. Through these programs, the homeowner’s grandparents (the first generation to own the land) planted tens of thousands of trees on the lot—both providing a green future and family fingerprint on the property. 

Their land began as a 68-acre portion containing a small primitive cabin called “The Shack” that was previously used as a farm granary. The building burned down in the 1950’s and was replaced with another rustic cabin without plumbing or electric. The first generation of family constructed that cabin from materials they harvested on the site – trees, old planks, and more.

A handful of years later, a second cabin was built next to the first. This new cabin had three rooms, but still no heat, electric, or plumbing, and was occupied by various family members through the years. This second cabin was expanded on, then left behind, when the family outgrew it.

“Every facet of the company is involved in this project, it’s been cool to see all of gears essentially of New Energy Works revolving around to make this project come to life,” says Jake Desmarais, Site Supervisor for New Energy Works General Contracting division who is overseeing the Otisco Lake build.

Developed by our in house design team, with a timber frame and high-performance enclosure by New Energy Works; the house also features details from our fine ­craftspeople at NEWwoodworks and sustainable wood products from our sister company Pioneer Millworks. 

Tucked on the shoreline of Otisco Lake, this custom residence is our client’s legacy home, built for them, but also for the family’s future generations. Spotlighting massive intersecting gable roofs, and a rustic timber-centric lake side porch, the homes crowning achievement is its great room. Designed for socializing and embellished by high craft Douglas fir trusses, the room is interred with our high-performance wall enclosures and thoughtfully detailed by our talented NEWwoodworks team.

The homeowners live just next door to the build site, so keeping them up to date on the work has been special for our team, who get great joy out of seeing our clients’ reactions to the daily progress.

“This has been a labor of love,” says Desmarais. “There have been some tiring days but there are other days when you get that instant gratification which is what being in the trades is all about. Days where you can step back and say, ‘Oh my gosh we got all of this stuff done.’ The site supervision is so important and gives the homeowners piece of mind.” 

“This was going to be an agricultural utility building. It was not going to be a venue, it was not going to a classroom—the outdoors is our classroom,” says Mary Mannix, Vice President Board of Directors Natick Community Organic Farm. “Whatever the farm teaches, its mission is education.”

Established in 1974, the Natick Community Organic Farm is a non-profit certified organic farm. It serves 26 communities and features 30 acres of open space while providing farm products and education to patrons of all ages, year-round. Often referred to as just The Farm, it has become THE place for the Natick community to learn. Whether about the food chain, land management, ecosystems, or natural farming skills, the farm has provided Massachusetts youth the life skills to last them into adulthood.

“Having your child go to a place like The Farm where they’re going to explore and do things like look at bugs,” says Mannix. “That’s what makes it such a beloved place. No screens, no cell phones, and the pace is agreeable.”

The centerpiece of The Farm was its functional 200-year-old timber frame cattle barn that dated from 1815. On March 17, 2021, in the early hours of St. Patrick’s Day, the barn was destroyed in a three-alarm fire. The destructive blaze was a devastating blow to the community who didn’t know how The Farm would ever recover. 

Whereas the tragic blaze could have torn the community apart, what it did was inspire a coming together through a grassroots fundraising campaign. The support was immediate and massive. Donations poured in locally as well as from surrounding areas. The community responded quickly because the farm had resonated and affected everyone in a positive way. 

“Accessibility is often mandated, but inclusion is a choice.” – Mike Bentley

On a donated field not far from the shores of Canandaigua Lake in New York, a brand new and overdue community space just opened. Motion Junction is located on Outhouse Road in the Richard P Outhouse Memorial Park, so named for the family that donated the land on which the park and new playground now stand. Motion Junction has the distinction of being the first Universal Design (UD) certified and fully inclusive playground in the United States. Universal Design is defined as ‘a concept in which products and environments are designed to be usable by all people, to the greatest extend possible, without the need for adaption or specialized design’. Motion Junction is an entire complex focused on improving health, wellness, performance, and social participation for a diverse population of people.

Architects, builders, families, and volunteers united for Motion Junction’s common goal of creating a space where people of all abilities can be engaged in a sensory rich environment that provides a safe harbor from the storms of their struggles. While the facility is labeled as a playground, it is much more than that, it’s a truly a diverse community space for everyone.

The mission of any fully inclusive playground is to encourage and increase interactions between a variety of people and institute parallel play. Parallel play is when children regardless of ability interact and engage with each other in a safe and inclusive space. The hope is that the socialization facilitated by parallel play will take root and expand into later life — informing the entire community.

Contractor Cents - Episode 314: “Owner’s Attitude" with Jonathan Orpin

Host Ruth King sits down with our founder and CEO Jonathan Orpin to explore what it takes to get employees to think like owners in the latest installment of the Contractor Cents podcast. 

Click here to listen: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/contractor-cents/id1373322977

How do you get employees to get an “owner’s attitude” rather than a “we just work here and collect a paycheck” mentality? And, what does giving back really mean and how does it affect operations?  Jonathan Orpin discusses the answers to these questions and more.

Listen and learn more:

Contractor Cents - Episode 314 - “Owner’s Attitude" | Contractor Cents (podbean.com)

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/contractor-cents/id1373322977

Ruth King - www.ruthking.info

Twitter - @RuthKing

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruthking1/

New Energy Works in collaboration with the McMinnville Economic Development Partnership, Representative Lucetta Elmer, and Mayor Remy Drabkin hosted a groundbreaking ceremony for our new 20,000 square foot production facility in McMinnville Oregon on Thursday, December 21st.

With this new facility, employee-owned New Energy Works will be expanding our McMinnville operations adding new cutting edge CNC equipment, offices, and production space to our existing campus, which will increase our capabilities and service offerings, resulting in regional growth and expanded employment opportunities in the McMinnville community.

When the owners of this recently completed lakefront residence began their journey to build a custom timber frame home in the Finger Lakes, they relied on the experience and comprehensive design + build services offered by New Energy Works, based in nearby Farmington New York.

For over thirty years New Energy Works has been crafting sustainably minded timber frame homes throughout the Finger Lakes region. In that time their expertise and service offerings have grown to include in-house Architects, interior designers, and general contracting/ construction as well as a fine woodworking division known as NEWwoodworks, and their sister company Pioneer Millworks – who manufacture reclaimed and sustainable wood products, all of which were utilized to construct this one-of-a-kind home.

The homeowners came to the project with a previous connection to New Energy Works through the company’s fine woodworking division, who had done extensive remodeling work for them on a different property in the past. But building a brand-new home on one of the Finger Lakes can present unique challenges, which Architect Kyle Barber RA, CPHC – the head of New Energy Works design team knows all too well.

On a recent episode of the Digital Supply Chain podcast, host Tom Raftery sat down with our founder & CEO Jonathan Orpin to discuss his journey helping to revolutionize the timber and construction industry with a staunch commitment to sustainability.

The episode dives deep into how New Energy Works incorporates an eco-friendly approach to our projects, often focusing on the use of reclaimed and sustainably harvested wood in partnership with our sister company Pioneer Millworks.

See the interview on YouTube:  https://youtu.be/kNPvRjzPLx8
 

See more from Digital Supply Chain:  The Future of Building: Sustainability and Innovation with Jonathan Orpin (digitalsupplychainpodcast.com)

Recently our founder & CEO Jonathan Orpin wrote a "SPEC" editorial for our friends at Fine Homebuilding Magazine about TimberHP's new domestically manufactured wood-based insulation product TimberFill. This series is where the magazine explores new products and solutions for crafting fine homes from the perspective of respected professionals in the industry. 

TimberFill is a loose fill insulation product from TimeberHP that can be blown in or dense packed for high performing, affordable, fire-resistant, and carbon negative coverage in attics, wall cavities, floors, and ceilings.

For homeowners Mary & Eric, building a responsibly sized and environmentally sound retirement home was a priority for them as they looked toward their own future, and the planets. Utilizing as many environmentally friendly building materials as possible, the couple were equally concerned about the homes short term impact on the environment, as well as its long-term energy use and performance.

“Eric is a scientist-type personality and Mary is a cool artist-type personality, and juxtaposing those two points of view together into a finished home was the challenge here. We worked with them and added more timber into the building, opened some windows, and worked with the couple to minimize the square footage of the space down to what was essential to their lifestyle. It was quite the task to meet the needs of both clients, with Mary being focused on the craft and beauty of the home, and Eric being very concerned with material selections, sourcing, imbedded carbon, and performance. It was a winning combination though, and both were willing to compromise when needed to make things work and stuck by their guns when necessary to get what they wanted. In the end we came up with a very nice design that was a beautiful compromise to what they each wanted out of this home.” - Architect David Shirley AIA, NCARB

“When we looked at the New Energy Works website and read about how the company crafts high-performance enclosures that pay very close attention to a home’s thermal envelope as part of their Design + Build process, we were very impressed that the team makes sustainability a normal part of how they do business,” Eric shared. “To our mind that is the kind of company we want to support.”

Recently our team completed a unique general contracting project in the Finger Lakes region of New York. The lake front homes interior was designed by Brooke Wagner Design, a celebrated full service design firm based in Corona del Mar California, and features extensive fine woodworking that was crafted by our NEWwoodworks team.

We caught up with Rob D’Alessandro who manages our woodworking division to talk about collaborating with a well-respected interior designer and the trends and challenges of high-craft woodwork in modern custom home design.

Q: What different kinds of woodwork did the NEWwoodworks team craft or this project?

A: For this project our team fabricated and finished all the cabinetry throughout the home as well as the stairs, railing, doors (inside and out), built-in storage, some of the counter tops, and elements of the screened in porches.

Q: How closely did the NEWwoodworks team collaborate with the interior designer on this project?

Our friends at Rochester Home Magazine honored us with a detailed cover editorial featuring our east coast design team.

Written by Helana Shumway

Project photos by Tim Wilkes

Read the whole issue online: September//October 2023 Rochester HOME Magazine by Featured Media - Issuu

“Lighting is an important part of designing a home from the inside out. Low voltage accent lighting highlights architectural features while stylistic fixtures identify the gathering spaces.” -Diana Gerken 

When Mark and his wife set out to craft a timber frame home in central New York State, the journey started with finding the right piece of country real estate to build on. Once they had acquired the land to develop, it became time to design their new family home.

“During the design process we often ask ourselves: How will they know where to go? Here the main entry is called attention to by a trellised walking path from the face of the garage to an expressive covered entry, which extends to be the most prominent extension on the main facade.” - Kyle Zinteck, RA New Energy Works

“We customed designed our home, so it is exactly what we wanted. My wife and I are not youthful anymore, so we had a clear idea of what we needed for the next 25 years or so,” Mark shared. “We have a large extended family, so we designed the house around our need to host large groups of people to accommodate our family when they visit.”

“The main entrance is substantiated with stone walls on either side of the door to support the timber porch that draws guests in to a custom NEWwoodworks door. Taking inspiration from a previous New Energy Works project that the homeowners loved, we designed this Douglas fir door with transom and sidelights in a finish that blends harmoniously with the timber color and stained cedar siding.” -Diana Gerken 

Rolling seaside hills serve as the backdrop to this barn styled home that was inspired by traditional timber frame barn designs familiar to the surrounding area. This home truly celebrates the simplicity of its form and takes the interior timber structure outward to the exterior.

“The western side of the home was purposely designed to be the primary entry to the house, and you approach that entry by car,” said Michael Schmitt AIA, the Architect on the project.  “Our idea was that space could be where the whole design revealed itself, where part of the exterior is pulled back to reveal some of the interior timber structure and express some of the frame from the inside on the outside. It is also where the garage is, so even guests would arrive on that side of the house and come up a few steps into the exposed barn structure and then into the interior.”

“The design idea was to express the barn frame from the interior out to the exterior in that one location of the home, but It also breaks down the monotony of a 100-foot by 30-foot barn,” Michael continued. “The visual actually erodes at that corner and becomes the barn frame, which is what we tried to express throughout the whole project, the beautiful simplicity of the barn’s timber frame.”

See more: Fine Homebuilding Magazine

Project Credits: 

Solar Partner: SunCommon

Timber Frame: New Energy Works

Engineer: Sellers Treybal Structural Engineers 

Now available in New York & Vermont

Coming soon to the West Coast U.S.A.

See our case study: The Solar Canopy | New Energy Works

One of the best ways to reduce the long-term energy consumption and carbon footprint of a new home is to incorporate a high-performance enclosure system into the design. Using semi-automated tooling, good old-fashioned experience, and natural materials our pre-panelized wall, floor, and roof systems are customizable to your project and offer an accessible solution to building a higher preforming home.

New Energy Works calls this program HPEz, or High-Performance Made Easier™, and we caught up with Bryan Bleier who manages our HPEz shop to learn a little more about the technical specifics and benefits of pre-panelized enclosures.

Q: What makes our HPEz enclosures high-performance?

A high-performance enclosure is a wall system that is fabricated far above code-minimum construction standards in terms of insulation, airtightness, thermal bridging, and overall quality. This is achieved by increasing insulation values and airtightness using industry leading products such as intelligent membranes, tapes, and gaskets. Our airtight, vapor open assemblies offer increased indoor comfort & air quality, reduced energy consumption/costs as well as long term performance and durability. It’s our goal to build enclosures that last generations, not just 50-100 years.

When Julie built her ranch style home in Oregon back in 1989, she wanted a classic timber frame, but was unable to find anyone in the area building timber homes at the time. With a background in the construction industry and woodworking, she was her own general contractor on the home and got as close as she could to the timber frame aesthetic by including exposed beams and wood pillars.

“We are retired now, but what we did for a profession was excavation and heavy equipment rental, site work, a lot of high-end homes, municipality, public excavation work, like high schools, streets,” Julie told us. “Funny enough, we helped develop the neighborhood we live in about 35 years ago. We built our family home here, and at that time I wanted to do a timber frame structure, but no one in the area was doing them. What we have in the main house is open beam and wood pillars, which is as close as I could get to timber framing in 1989.”

More recently when Julie began considering retirement, she reached out to New Energy Works to design and build a timber frame addition to her much-loved family home. The reverent timber space that now houses her at home woodshop is designed to be a flexible space that can adapt to her fine woodworking needs today but could also be converted to functional living space in the decades to come.

(585) Magazine recently covered one of our favorite recent Design + Build projects in the Finger Lakes Region of New York. This project combined all our related services, Timber Frame, Design + Build, HPEz, fine woodworking from NEWwoodworks, and our sister company Pioneer Millworks.

More from (585): (585) magazine - Rochester, NY (585mag.com)

Related Content:

Long-Term Lake Front | New Energy Works

Natural materials for a custom home: Design Q&A | Pioneermillworks

Project Credits:

Architect: New Energy Works

Builder: New Energy Works, High-Performance Enclosure: New Energy Works

Engineer: Fire Tower Engineered Timber 

Reclaimed Wood: Pioneer Millworks 

I’ve been timber framing for more than 30 years. Very often over this time we’ve worked with owner builders. These folks span the same wide range as any other custom builder, from hands off the tools and just managing everyone, to placing every form, nailing every connector, and setting the last piece of bathroom tile.

Mostly though, it’s somewhere in between, smack in the middle. Scott & Jill are that way, and on a recent stop in after we’d been done with our part for a couple months, I was once again reminded of my oft-stated, “Human potential is an amazing thing”.

When I first visited their site in Sisters, Oregon, the two were busy clearing brush and building a pump house. They could see where they were going, had the views of The Three Sisters Mountain Range captured just right, and knew how the driveway and entry porch would eventually welcome guests. My coworker David had finished their plans but truthfully, Scott had sent us about the most detailed set of preliminaries we have ever received. They knew what they wanted.

And they knew how to work for it. You might remember the post from August when we raised their timber frame in 100+ °F and bright sun. We then went back and installed tongue and groove and structural insulated panels (SIPs). But everything else was Scott & Jill and their own set of subs and coworkers…and a lot more hard work of their own. Here are some shots on a recent snowy afternoon by our coworker Kelsey Boyer.

These are images of a well organized, quality job site. And of so much of a dream unfolding. I once asked those two how they are still so much in love (as was evident, if you get my drift).  “Shared dreams and the perfect partner,” was about the response. Stay with us over the next months. We’ll visit again and share the progress.

Bryan Bleier from our HPEz team and Kyle Barber from our design team recently attended the 16th annual PhiusCon (formerly North American Passive House Conference) at the historic Palmer House in Chicago IL. The guys specifically attended this year’s conference to connect with like-minded professionals in the industry and talk about New Energy Works investment in our High Performance Made Easier ™ (HPEz) enclosure systems as well as the teams ongoing commitment to develop sustainable and accessible higher performing homes.

PhiusCon is the leading passive building conference for climate-specific zero energy design, construction, and building science expertise. The conference is presented by parent organization Phius which is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization committed to decarbonizing the built environment by making high-performance passive building the mainstream market standard. Phius also certifies the majority of passive house projects in North America with their locally tailored, globally applicable passive building standard.

Anthony Venezia  has been spending his weekends this past year building a highly crafted high-performance home in Canandaigua New York. This construction project is designed to be a modern and sustainable home for Anthony and his family and features dark stained Douglas fir timber accents as well as two-tone Shou Sugi Ban exterior siding and white oak flooring & stair treads from our sister company Pioneer Millworks.

Most importantly, the home utilizes our High Performance Made Easier ™ (HPEz) enclosure system which enabled Anthony and Luke to construct the home to the efficiency standards they wanted to achieve with the project. 

Now that the family home is nearing completion, we caught up with Anthony to discuss how the project got started, why he wanted to build sustainably, and what it was like building a home for his family with a high-performance enclosure system that was manufactured off-site.

Q: How did this high-performance construction project get started?

Our HPEz (High Performance Made Easier™) team has been busy in the past year crafting and installing enclosure systems for numerous projects throughout the country. In addition to designing our own High-Performance enclosure systems, on select projects we offer off-site manufacture of panelization systems as a subcontractor.

One of those projects is a Pre-Certified Passive House near Philadelphia PA where our team partnered with Holzraum System to manufacture and install their Holzraum XP20 Wall Systems on a home designed by architect Macht Architecture and built by Hanson Fine Homebuilding. Our team also installed the floor and roof system on site as well, focusing on the intricate panel joining process to ensure the home meets Passive House thermal envelope standards.

“Holzraum System came to us with this project, they did the 3D computer model configurations of the enclosure and other components. Once they had it in architectural drawings, we helped them break it into panel sections for manufacturing in our HPEz shop,” Kevin Gilbert, Construction Superintendent from our team told us.

On a recent weekend I visited 21 sites in New York from Friday night until Sunday evening.  I was touring with some west coast-based members of our timber framing team.  The goal is sharing, connecting, and learning from recent and ongoing projects as well as some from our long past.  I think I’ll write more about this trip in an upcoming post, as we were all deeply affected, with a Friday night ride on the Buffalo Heritage Carousel and ending with an acapella performance at Christ Church in Rochester and touring the Baroque period organ project there.

The tour left us all pretty stunned.  Even for me, who had been part of these projects.  Seeing it all together like this was magic, if a bit overwhelming.

Towards the end of Sunday, we were at our longtime clients Tom and Karen’s place in the Finger Lakes when Tom said, “Hey our neighbor Larry stopped by and when he heard you were coming was adamant you guys visit him as well.”  Wow, a total warm wind of memory whipped right through.  Larry H.  We built for him in 1988.  And when his name comes up, so do the stories…

We work all over the country, but you already knew that.  And while there is no doubt that it’s great to get back home the night of a raising when it’s local to either our Western New York or McMinnville, Oregon shops, the truth is most of us like to travel, and that we get to do!  

Out here on the West Coast, where I spend most of my time, we’ve had a summer of unreal views and sights (and sites). Someone asked me recently where we’ve been.  Lessee...  Yosemite, Leavenworth, Flathead Lake, Carmel, Lake Lapeer, Michigan…  Wait Michigan?  You bet.  

Most of our clients and much of our industry are looking for their timber frames in Douglas fir, so doing these out of our west coast shop makes a lot of sense as we are in the midst of Doug-fir-land here in Oregon.  We also feel strongly that whenever possible our timbers should be kiln dried.  It just makes a better final product.  And yes, we’re in the middle of kiln country as well.

So, sending a large set of hammer beam trusses and bents to a beautiful Michigan lake fits.

As does Yosemite, where we are returning next week to finish the exterior timbers on the top of this hill.  

Rochester Childfirst Network has been serving the children of Rochester New York and the surrounding area since 1857. To provide some context as to how long that has been, the American Civil War began in 1861, four years after R.C.N. began their mission to care for children in Rochester.

Over the years RCN has changed with the needs of the community, beginning as an organization aimed at addressing the dire needs of orphaned, poverty stricken, and homeless children with vocational schooling, which were commonplace issues of the late Victorian age continuing into the industrial revolution. Today the group has transitioned to offering community based early education and care programs on their South Avenue campus in downtown Rochester.

RCN’s mission centers on not-for-profit advocation at local, state, and national levels for early education and care practices for all children with a guiding vision that every child should grow up safe, strong, and able to achieve their full potential.

We’re fortunate to have a variety of landscapes within New York State. Those who are passionate about the outdoors, mountains, lakes, and the accompanying passions of skiing, hiking, water sports, and more, can find a bit of it all “upstate”. The Adirondack Mountains, the Finger Lakes Region, and even Western NY each offer opportunity for these pastimes. Shane and his family found their East Coast calling near Old Forge in the Adirondacks. 
 

Upon purchasing a special plot of land, planning and projects began. Beginning with a garage that included a living space, the family then spruced up the grounds, rebuilt the boathouse, and in the final stage, turned attention to creating the main house. 
 

Businesses around the country were forced to make significant changes to how they operate in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. When our friends at the Benedictine Brewery called with a need to raise an outdoor pavilion for their customers, we were happy to jump into action.

 One of only three breweries in the United States owned and operated by monks, the Benedictine brewery raising in 2017 was a community effort and one that we will always remember.  You can catch up on that story and watch a video of 100 folks hoisting the frame here: (https://newenergyworks.com/blog/a-community-raising-the-benedictine-brewery-mt-angel-oregon)

Designed to mimic the original brewery and taproom with their close to 14,000 board feet of Douglas fir, we created the structure of the pavilion with matching embellishments, using chamfered edges and a clear, natural finish to the wood.  Just as the original raising started in 2017, the Douglas fir timbers quickly defined the shape of the pavilion and now serve as a way for the brewery to continue serving as a welcoming way for the community to gather, taste, and believe.

Guest Author: New Energy Works, Dave Cratty

We all have those dreams of wanting to leave it all behind and live off the grid.  Find a place in the Adirondack mountains, on a remote lake, and just surround yourself with nature and the outdoors.  The question is, how do you deliver and raise a beautiful timber frame lake house to a location that no roads have touched?  The answer, by boat.  

Our New Energy Works timber frame crew spent seven tireless days, traveling back and forth by barge to deliver, off load and raise by hand, this beautiful 1361 square foot bungalow.  The homeowner’s plan to utilize this location in the warmer seasonal months, created a unique opportunity to use a 3x tongue and groove design for the walls, while every door frame and window were outlined with timber.  The layout offered an open floor plan and offering visitors an unobstructed views of the private lake from this cozy, secluded cabin.

Tucked into Puget Sound in Washington, this site allows the homeowners to feed their passions: boating, family time, and entertaining. Easy access for boats and creating spaces large enough to house large family and friends gatherings drove the design, secondary only to the desire for a “refined lodge” aesthetic.

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Known as a full timber frame, the entirety of the home and garage were crafted with timbers, specifically reclaimed Douglas fir timbers. When plans began, the design was quite traditional. “The more we looked at the site and the possible views, the more it transitioned, evolved,” explained David Shirley, AIA, member of our design team. “We angled the house in a soft arc of sorts which maximized views of the Sound as well as those of the Cascade Mountain range in the distance.” This change capitalized on the views and the natural wrap of the land.

No, it is not built into an earthen bank, rather this traditionally inspired timber frame ‘barn’ has had a financial bank built into it. Welcome to the newest branch of LNB (Lyons National Bank):

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Waving corn fields and tight rows of soybeans have given way to smooth grass, colorful signage, and numerous clusters of homes within the Town of Farmington in Ontario County, NY. Grow though the Town has, respecting and celebrating their rural roots is of utmost importance to the community. When LNB approached the Town about a site that was home to the second oldest structure in the County, a farmhouse that has stood for two centuries, there was some skepticism. But at the core LNB is about community. The Town became excited by the bank’s proposal: LNB wanted to embrace the old homestead, the Hathaway House, endeavoring to preserve, celebrate, and open it to the community as part of their new branch. 
(More on the history of the home and property was provided by the Hathaway Sisters, who shared stories, photos, and personal memories around the old homestead, as celebrated by LNB here.)    

The Canalside waterfront entertainment district in Buffalo NY, a popular destination for locals and visitors, will add another attraction this summer: a fully restored 1920’s carousel! The carousel will be housed within a gazebo-inspired timber frame pavilion with glass walls.

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“The timber frame is an 80’ octagon with a clerestory. A 1500 lb steel octagon ring in the center will allow timber rafters to connect and light to come down from the clerestory,” explains Owen MacDonald, our lead timber frame engineer for the carousel. “We’ll have plenty of equipment for the raising: a large scissor lift, all-terrain forklift, two large cranes…and lots of muscle.”

We’re excited share more of the story on our long-time banking partner, LNB (Lyons National Bank), and their newest community branch which we raised just up the road from our Farmington, NY shop.

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The first bent is raised for the new LNB Farmington NY branch, early 2020. Photo (C) Jim Kerins.

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While the branch is quickly heading towards completion, we wanted to re-cap some of the processes involved in getting there:

LNB has a focus on people and is always very involved in the local communities, ethos that parallel our own. The Farmington branch site includes a historic home that is being preserved and refreshed. A new timber frame, connecting to the historic home, will accommodate the bank’s main operations.

State College, PA: Homeowners Jim and Cheryl came to us with a dream home request: design and craft a home for two which could also easily accommodate much larger gatherings with family and friends. The resulting simple and classic cruciform plan for their hybrid timber frame home fits the couple while incorporating space—inside and out—for others.

Jim and Cheryl, their children, and their friends attended the same university near State College in PA where game season is a great reason to join together. The couple found a site nestled at the base of a long rise to the mountains on one side, and open to expansive views into Nittney Valley on the other. “We wanted to take advantage of the views and offer additional space for intensive entertaining to flow outside,” explained Ty Allen, our design/build manager. “The result is nearly 2,000 sq ft of outdoor deck, porch, and patio space in addition to interior living areas.”

Screen porches and a terrace for grilling connect to the fire pit stone patio area which in turn is tied back to the rec area with connecting landscaping. The lower level of the home offers guest and rec space with overflow sleeping ready in the bunk house over the garage. Photo (C) Scott Hemenway

Recently we did a project with Black Oak Builders and Barry Price Architecture in Saugerties, NY. Interestingly for us, the majority of the project was not timber frame (though they do have a sweet little timber piece off the side of the garage that may someday house a small maple sugaring operation). No, in this case Black Oak Builders reached out to us to partner on the enclosure system for three additions to this 1800’s home; a master bedroom suite, an office/bedroom wing, and a two-story garage.

Our goal with High Performance Enclosures (HPE) is simple—to help builders achieve better building performance for their clients and to make the projects go as smoothly as possible. With our knowledge in systems building (from years in timber framing, as well as construction experience in our Finger Lakes backyard) we can bring the nuances of off-site construction to enclosure building and pre-panelization to those looking for custom solutions. Our construction team built 66 panels in about 2 weeks and headed out in a snowstorm to install the them in January. This off-site minimizes the time needed on-site, saving projects weeks and speeding up the deliverable of a finished space to a client.

The owners of this timber frame lakeside retreat enjoyed the original lake farmhouse on the site for many years. When it became apparent that their beloved lake house had outlived its use, they made the bittersweet decision to deconstruct it in favor of a new home.

The land, the lake, and home’s impact there was a driving force in the design. Our design team started with respecting the local vernacular and maintaining existing trees and then included advanced enclosure and mechanical systems, FSC-certified® and reclaimed wood flooring and siding, roofing made of recycled wood fiber and rubber, and a geothermal heat system—all resulting in energy efficiency and reduced environmental impact.

In keeping with local vernacular, the road side facia of this cottage home is modest and welcoming.

The broad stroke design of this home harkens to sap houses and agricultural structures of the Northeast and the flare of mountain homes for a balance of rugged and modern aesthetics. Forms evoke the traditional, such as the clerestory and the cylindrical stair tower but are tempered within via the non-traditional great room space and helical, modern stairs.

“Often I find the most beautiful designs are when you can see the function of a structure. I enjoy thinking of a balance of the purpose of a structure and function, and how the builders achieve that goal,” shared Shannon, homeowner of the Circle in a Square project. “I enjoy seeing the inner workings of things. That’s why I love timber frame structures. Take a home and its many reasons for being; there is an endless way of accomplishing the goal. You need a roof and walls and other parts and ways for them to be held up and attached. The timber frame is probably one of the most unique ways of showing how that can be done.”

Project enclosure systems are one of the biggest areas to benefit from high-performance building techniques, and there are several options: SIPs (Structural Insulated Panels) and our Matrix & Matrix-S Wall system, to name a few. As we push for better envelopes and efficiencies with every project, we’re applying decades of experience in creating turnkey timber frame structures to crafting prefabricated wall systems.

“When you buy a car, no one shows up at your house with all the parts and builds your new car in your driveway, right? So why build walls on-site?” asked Eric, our Timber Frame General Manager.

A project’s design is further developed in building modeling software where potential problems can be identified and solved immediately, prior to fabrication and prior to being on-site. Redundancy assures accuracy: we believe in building it twice—virtually then actually. Creating these systems off-site allows for a climate-controlled environment, reduction in material waste during construction (off-site and on-site), and increases the efficiency/speed of site production. All while minimizing our coworkers’ time out of town.

Much of our design and construction planning focuses on reducing the energy our projects consume, not only to the benefit of those enjoying the home, but to the larger community and the planet. One of the best ways to influence this: special consideration, planning, and detailing of wall and roof systems (aka: the project’s envelope). I chatted with Ty Allen AIA, our design-build manager, who took us a bit deeper our current innovations and processes with our home enclosures:

Megan: Thanks for walking through this, Ty. I’m curious, what do you think are the key things to consider when you are designing the building envelope for a high-performance home?

Ty: Air leakage is one of the biggest areas of energy and efficiency loss. Think of it this way; you can have as much insulation you want, but if you leave the front door open, it doesn’t matter. Add up all of the thousands of potential points of air leakage, and it can quickly turn into a big energy and efficiency loss.

Generally, when we think about envelope design, one of the most fundamental things we want to do is define the pressure boundary. In other words, the line throughout the building in the wall-makeup where you’re creating airtightness. If there’s a break in the pressure boundary, say cold air leaking through the floor system into the living room, performance is lost.

After using Cross Laminated Timbers (CLTs) from KLH to form our fine woodworking shop we were excited to incorporate the big wooden panels into other projects. We’re working again with the CLT manufacturing, design, and engineering teams at KLH, this time to raise a complete CLT home in Scappoose, Oregon.

Our team has been raising/joining the CLTs this week. Here’s an animation of the planned process:

And a few current progress photos from the craftsmen on site:

Onlookers huddled in their coats and chatted excitedly on a cool breezy day in upstate New York while our craftsmen raised the frame for Jim and Tina’s home on Cayuga Lake. Multiple generations of the family were joined by a few guests at the site. Seeing the timbers come together and their home take shape brought plenty of smiles from Jim, Tina, their children, and grandchildren.

While there are very few flat build sites available around the Finger Lakes these days, the couple found a special spot on Cayuga Lake that is not only flat but includes a point, known locally as Allen’s Point. Open in a 180-degree expanse, our design group explained that the home’s layout is intended to make the most of the sweeping north, west, and south lake views. With plans calling for a modified “L” shape, the position of the home on the site collects those views as well as links together the north beach side with the south boat dock side of the property. (It also allows private spaces to reside in the long straight of the “L”, separate from the open public spaces.)

With the foundation in and first-floor framing in place, it was time to put the frame up. Raising days are momentous occasions, a culmination of years of dreaming and planning. We’re always glad to join these significant days as the excitement is infectious and there’s nothing quite like going from an open site to a full frame in the span of a day or two.

We’re excited to be working with Jim and Tina to create their family heirloom home in the Finger Lakes. While there are very few flat build sites available around the Finger Lakes these days, the couple found a special spot on Cayuga Lake in New York that is not only flat, but includes a point, known locally as Allen’s Point.

The home design took special focus on entertaining, employing a modified “L” shape for the home that allows private spaces to reside in the long straight of the “L”, separate from the open public spaces. At around 5,000 sq ft the plans include bunk rooms over the garage, two guest rooms, one master suite, and one guest suite meant to comfortably accommodate many.

As progress continues we’ll talk with our design group about other features such as a stone wall connecting the north and south ends of the home/property, a huge 2′ threshold into the entertainment areas, deliberate routes in and out of the home to the lake, and a continuous wrap-around porch. Before we get to that, we need to raise the frame!

On one of our typical cool, rainy, and windy Autumn days in upstate New York, I had the chance to chat with Laurie who was enjoying some sun and warmth down in Texas. We worked with Laurie and her husband Dan for over a year designing, building, and completing their multi-generational lakeside retreat home in nearby Canandaigua, NY. I asked Laurie if she would share her take on what it was like to build and decorate a custom timber frame home. Her enthusiasm was infectious and I know I spent much of our conversation nodding and smiling. Here’s what she shared:

Megan: So much is about the build site. Why Canandaigua? 

Enclosure, mechanicals, and moving in. What’s the latest with our CLT build?

We began raising the first complete Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) building in New York State on our main campus in Farmington, NY in late January 2017. A combination of mass timber, heavy timber, and CLTs, the 21,000 sq ft building will house our fine woodworking division, NEWwoodworks, and offer a bit of storage/shipping for our sister company, Pioneer Millworks. Progress since May has included:

Wood fiber installation, another product which is new to the US. Also referred to as “out-sulation” since it is installed on the outside of projects, the Wood Fiber panels offer 3.5R per inch, are FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified, and are a carbon sink – for each 1 m3 used, up to 1 tonne of CO2 is bound within the product. Made by Steico, we found this product installed with a fair amount of ease and is performing well.

The custom CNC cut corner tree received a coat of stain and is now sheltered behind glass.

In our experience, homes are most successful when they adapt, age, and grow with their inhabitants. It’s always pleasing when we can plan ahead for changes, such as transitioning a weekend vacation space to full-time home. Hank and Julie have given us such an opportunity. The couple has a delightful build site in Vermont and enlisted our team to design their vacation home, which will eventually become their full-time retirement retreat.

Sublime views between ski areas to the north and south guided the overall home orientation, and specifically the great room layout, for Hank and Julie’s project.

Careful consideration was also given to the traditional Vermont farmhouse vernacular. The design acknowledges this aesthetic with a main gable roofline that intersects with an asymmetrical salt box gable roofline. It incorporates the couple’s desire for mountain-rustic style with mixed exterior materials and subtle timber elements. The corner of the home’s “L” shaped layout is defined with a stair tower that has evenly stacked windows and will feature shou sugi ban siding.

With a combination of woodlands and open agricultural space, the site will allow the home to be set partially within the trees at the end of a curving drive through open land. A banked garage is angled into the hillside, giving the front of the home a modest street-side facade.

The final (final!) Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) panels have been installed on our CLT project. Forming the front corner of the building these panels represent a piece of the flexibility of building with solid wood panels and speak to our passion for planet, forest, tree, and wood.

Our fine woodworking division, NEWwoodworks, used ingenuity, software, and CNC tooling to draw, layout, and cut the “tree” design. Our timber frame and construction teams, including Jason, Kevin, and Jim, installed the panels on a chilly Monday morning. Roofing and final enclosure, including wood fiber insulation, are underway.

Read more about this build, the First Complete Cross Laminated Timber Project in New York State, in a previous blog post.

We began raising the first complete Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) building in New York State on our main campus in Farmington, NY in late January 2017. A combination of mass timber, heavy timber, and CLTs, the 21,000 sq ft building will house our fine woodworking division, NEWwoodworks, and offer a bit of storage/shipping for our sister company, Pioneer Millworks. CLT construction is an economically and environmentally conscious alternative to steel and concrete construction, a material that is new to the U.S. building industry.

Many thanks to Adjusters International BLC. When our roof collapsed their team was unfaltering. They were there to explain the insurance policy, help the process along, and get us what we needed.

UPDATE: May 2017 – nearing completion:

The challenge was set: take a well-loved 1980’s family home and transform both aesthetics and functionality. Our design and build teams embraced the challenge with gusto. Ty Allen, head of our Design/Build groups and our in-house Architect, gave us the cliff notes.

The homeowners built their family lake home over 25 years ago. They raised their children and made countless memories. Yet, the 1980’s contemporary design was no longer meeting all of their needs and had become dated in style. We were building a new timber frame home on a neighboring lake and we’re told that project was part of the inspiration for couple to join our community and incorporate timber framing into their lives.

Ty explained, “I think 80’s contemporary homes are the best type of existing home to transform. They are often a clean slate with open volumes and simple details.” Remodeling requires balance – the changes for this home would be bold. “We wanted to respect the integrity of the existing home, using what was already existing as a springboard to modernizing how the home looks, feels, and works.”

“I’ll give you the whole story if you share those with me.” I glanced at the white box with orange fish dancing across the outside. Crackers for information, the deal of the day. With a smile I handed the box over to Pete, one of our design group architects and the design leader on our current Canandaigua Lake general contracting project.

“So Megan,” Pete began in his usual serious-but-joking-and-easygoing manner, “You want to know about the Canandaigua Family Retreat? Well, Dan & Laurie have been looking for the right site for about three years now. They gave us a call and asked if we’d come check out the spot they’d found. They felt really good about it, but wanted our take, which I thought was pretty cool. I like being involved from the beginning, especially because I had a good idea of what they wanted their project encompass.”

“Had their three year search reached an end?” I asked as the crackers disappeared with unnatural speed.

“It had,” he confirmed. “We knew our design plans would be influenced by stringent site constraints associated with being near the water (height restrictions, erosion/sediment concerns, set-backs, etc) and the nature of the narrow, deeply sloping land. But it was perfect for Dan & Laurie’s home.”

We’re excited to announce that we’re building the first complete Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) building in New York State on our campus in Farmington, New York. Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) construction is an economically and environmentally conscious alternative to steel and concrete construction. The new building will house or fine woodworking division, NEWwoodworks, and offer storage/shipping space for our sister company Pioneer Millworks.

“We’re extremely excited to bring this alternative building method to New York State. We see CLTs as the wave of the future and are investing in our Western New York campus to better position the region and our industry to ride the wave,” states Jonathan, our Founder and President. “The opportunities with CLTs are abundant for businesses and housing and offer dramatic environmental benefits. Wood is a naturally occurring and renewable resource which stores carbon. It has proved time and again to preform as well, and at times better than, carbon heavy steel and concrete.”

CLTs are large wooden panels, typically consisting of 3, 5, or 7 layers of dimensional lumber, oriented at right angles, glued together. This results in exceptional strength, dimensional stability, and rigidity. The pre-fabricated wall, floor, and roof panels can be installed quickly with little job-site waste. European countries have been utilizing the panels for multi-story buildings with great structural, financial, and environmental success.

Timber Home Living magazine continues coverage of the Olsen family home, a reclaimed timber frame raised in 2014. Beginning the furnishing stage for their retreat home the Olsen’s discovered stopping to listen to the experts surpassed their expectations for style and eco-friendly materials, including reclaimed wood from our sister company Pioneer Millworks. Read more:

Timber Home Living magazine continues coverage of the Olsen family home, a reclaimed timber frame raised in 2014. Harsh winter weather delayed progress for the mountain home. Rather than risk safety and quality, the Olsen’s and our teams decided to pause construction. Read more:

We started this job in the end of the summer of 2015 when Dan Hill and Ryan Rojas from Arbor South Design-Build approached us about building a timber frame for their client’s lake cabin on Odell Lake, Oregon. Our crew had a great time working on the project. We had 3 of our long-time team members (myself, Todd, Jimmy) plus we added our new project engineer, Quinn, to the mix so that he could see all the intricacies of how one of these projects go together on the ground. (He’s now migrated to the office to start his frame joining education.)

Odell Lake is a stunning mountain lake with beautiful vistas and HUGE fish. The cabin is in an area of Historical Significance, which means that though the owners are building a new cabin they don’t actually own the land beneath. The cabins in this area are all on a long-term lease with the US Forest Service. Because of its historical designation, the site had to have an archaeological survey done to ensure that there weren’t any important artifacts the new structure was going to disturb. It was a gamble for the owners to take as this area had been a prime fishing spot for not only the last hundred years, but for millennia before. A few arrowheads and pottery shards were found but nothing significant enough to stop the project.

Timber Home Living magazine continues coverage of the Olsen family home, a reclaimed timber frame raised in 2014. Progress on the home continues as our construction team encloses the frame with high efficiency SIPs (Structural Insulated Panels) and our Matrix Wall:

Timber Home Living Magazine is documenting each step in the design/build process for the Olsen family’s reclaimed Douglas fir timber frame home in Austerlitz, NY. Online and print articles will cover the home’s journey from architectural planning, to the frame raising, to enclosure, to completion.

Part 1, below, can be found in the October issue on sale now.

Life in the Finger Lakes magazine featured one of our homes, designed and built in Honeoye Falls, New York for a young, growing family. Read the full article below: