Nearly the entire Whole Trees crew was on site in Fairfield Iowa last week for the raising of the main timber frame structure at Maharishi University. The process went amazingly well – the clear weather lasted just about exactly as long as needed (and not a bit more). The guys all had a tremendous time and Roald led a very popular workshop over the weekend to indoctrinate more eager students to the cause of Whole Tree construction. Without further ado – here are some of the construction photos:
It was a very different feeling to be unloading the truck with a crane!
We assemble each timber frame “bent” on little rolling dollies which makes it easy to move it into position before it is raised into its upright position.
Since the rest of the building will go up right around our timber frame structure (and eventually tie into it structurally) we have it all braced up with scrap lumber for the moment. That way the guys on the construction site don’t have to worry about tipping in the mean time.
Once two bents are up the feeling of the space begins to emerge.
At the center of the building the hallway widens out into a “Brahmistan” space.
Once we got all the elements bolted together it was ready to stand on its own … and hold up the rest of the building as well.
Finally, here are some detail shots from the connections. Whole tree elements can come together very beautifully, even when they are a simple structural framework of columns and beams – we always remember craft.
One of the ways we compromise is by preparing and assembling our whole tree framework right here at our home base and then organizing an efficient Ship it, Build it, Come on Home operation to get it to its permanent location. After arduous weeks of harvesting, peeling and preparing these pieces they are finally ready to ship out! Because the Maharishi timber pieces were SO LARGE we actually borrowed a little workshop space from a neighboring business – Chaseburg Manufacturing located in scenic Coon Valley. Here are some of the beams, all prepped and ready to ship.