Growing up in Buffalo, NY is one of the biggest pieces of who I am. If you’re from Buffalo, or any small town with a lot of pride, I am sure you can relate to being shaped by your hometown. I eat chicken wings, not Buffalo wings. I add a “the” before a major highway (I get on THE 90, not i-90). I do not care for football at all, but even I get a little sentimental when the Bills win anything. I consider myself basically Canadian-lite.

So it was a pretty big deal for me to learn that New Energy Works would be part of Canalside, Buffalo's urban-waterfront revitalization project, through a timber frame pavilion that houses a solar-operated historic carousel. It checks all of my boxes.

You’re interested in timber framing, you have some building knowledge, but you’ve never built a timber frame. Yet you want to learn how. To boot, you identify as a woman and the field seems, well, really male-dominated. So how do you learn about, and get involved in, timber framing?

You could apply for a job as a timber framer at a timber frame company (like ours! Please send us your resume or credentials). Then you make it past muster and into the shop. And there you can learn hands-on how it all works through doing. This path can be intimidating and rests an awful lot on someone else saying “yes” come learn from us.

If we’re going to diversify the building industry, educational opportunities that are gender and culture/race inclusive, created specifically for those under-represented, that are an automatic “yes”, are key. The Timber Framers Guild (TFG) is doing just that this summer at the Heartwood School—a timber frame educational center—with their inaugural women-only timber framing class.

This is a place of "yes". A place to learn, and to grow—supported and empowered. Though the Heartwood School offers classes for all genders, through this women-only session the TFG is hoping to provide an open and welcoming environment for women in the trades, which is critically important to growing our community.

At the Heartwood School, the TFG offers an ideal space to foster relationships, make connections, and continue learning long after students have left. With new online groups supporting and celebrating women in timber framing and the Heartwood Alum Group, the Guild seeks to build on the experiences of these timber framers and build a better future for us all.

A natural waterfall drove much of the design and orientation for the timber frame of this barn. Natural elements of stone and copper combine with the timbers, paying homage to traditional barn building. A multi-step finish was applied to the timbers to create an old-world ambiance in juxtaposition with clean lines and contemporary furnishing. The barn serves as an event space for annual get-togethers, weddings, holidays, and more. You can read the full article in Rochester Magazine here.