Pete Newton, Timber FramesI am inspired by a tradition of joinery that relies on the inherent strength of a piece of wood used for a construction. The combination of mortise and tenon, peg or wedge, notch or scarf, or tongue and groove, partnered with the characteristics of the lumber at hand gave form to our buildings and furniture. This, as opposed to reducing the tree to veneer or chips and gluing it back together into sheets or engineered lumber for building, guides my work.

Replicating the work of New England builders around 1880, when they first used sawn timbers and continued to join them without metal and sheathed them with wide hemlock or spruce boards, ensures that materials come from local sawmills and forests. Thirty-eight years repairing and restoring barns in Vermont keep my design and construction traditional, efficient, simple and beautiful.

Green Building

When native lumber is used for construction, local tree farms, forestry, logging, milling and trucking jobs are supported. Energy use, pollution and packaging associated with industrial building products and long distant trucking are avoided. Further, building scraps and cut offs are not trash.