This fall, our friends at the Timber Framers Guild will raise the new Gateway Community Visitor’s Center in Schuylerville, NY. The new timber frame building will be constructed at the site of General Burgoyne’s surrender in the Revolutionary War and will serve as the starting point for tourism of historic sites in the upper Hudson Valley. From September 5th through the 15th, instructors will work with more than fifty students and volunteers to process approximately 24,000 board feet of locally sourced white pine and red oak timbers to form the community center.
Mike Beganyi, our New England representative and timber frame designer for the Schuylerville Community Building Project, and Timber Framers Guild Project Manager Neil Godden have incorporated characteristics of the Dutch barn frames native to the area into the Gateway Community Visitor’s Center plans.
“The timber frame is a modern take on a traditional Dutch style barn that was common in the Hudson Valley”, states Beganyi. “The traditional design has been adapted to meet program requirements for a visitor center which will house interpretive displays rotating exhibits, and host community events.” Large anchor beams with thru tenons and celebrated joinery will tie the frame of locally harvested pine and hardwoods together.
A community hand raising of the Gateway Community Visitor’s Center frame will take place on September 14th and 15th.
Since 1988, the Timber Framers Guild has collaborated with communities to create over seventy-five timber frame structures. Throughout their time, they’ve worked in the US, Canada, Suriname and Poland and have built timber frames for bridges, market pavilions, picnic shelters, park structures and house frames for a Habitat for Humanity affiliate.
