Modern in Pennsylvania
Designing a home for your parents? Chuck was up for the task and created this modern, clean-lined timber frame for his folks. The streamlined form of this two-level home is highlighted with a modest mixture of exterior materials. White oak timbers with their warm texture and tones–that will grow warmer and softer as the wood ages–were the choice for this frame. Desiring a natural look and feel, the timbers were left unfinished. A few of the long lines of the frame were created with 12"x12"x26' timbers, no small find when it comes to oak. A hard wood in the truest sense, oak challenges blades, bits, and muscles, but remains beloved by many.
It was quite the journey designing a home for my parents! Timber framing was a contextual idea; we wanted a simple, clean, modern house but didn't want to create something that was foreign to residential Pennsylvania. The rich warmth and scale of a timber frame or barn-like structure was logical to serve as the bones of the house. When the timbers arrived on a frigid snowy day, it was spectacular to see the beauty of the crafted wood from New Energy Works being erected on site.
Charles Patterson, AIA LEED AP