If you love cathedral ceilings, exposed beams, and detailed woodworking, you don’t have to live in a snowy alpine town to make your timber frame dreams come true.
Sponsored Content in partnership with New Energy Works
Coastal and lakeside homes can boast timber frame-forward designs, too — exemplified by New Energy Works’ wide portfolio of coastal projects. What started as a timber framing company 40 years ago now includes high-performance enclosure, fine woodworking, and glulams — but they still specialize in bringing an architect, builder, or homeowner’s bespoke timber frame visions to life.
What Does New Energy Works Do?
With studios and production shops in New York and Oregon, New Energy Works designs and builds custom homes and buildings throughout North America. They got their start in timber framing over four decades ago, and continue to deliver some of the best heavy timber structures in the industry.
“We take great joy in helping bring an architect or interior designer’s vision to life,” explains Eric Fraser of New Energy Works. “That could be by solving structural challenges or by simply creating the perfect combination of textures and stains to get just the right look.” The company focuses on collaboration — so if you have an architect or builder in mind for a project, New Energy Works partners with them to execute top-notch timber framing.
On Peak Togetherness, for example, New Energy Works collaborated with Joan Heaton Architects and High Peaks Carpenters on the shores of Lake Champlain. The bespoke getaway unifies two parcels of land and generations of families. The project contains a multitude of intimate, cozy spaces made for respite and a timber frame great room with two sun-soaked porches providing gathering spaces for front row views of the water.
“I think we first listen but are eager to understand the problems and offer guidance and suggestions along the way,” says Fraser. “Our goal is to bring our expertise to the projects we serve and that looks different on every project.”
The company provides other woodworking services, too, to match any project’s needs — from a custom timber frame to reclaimed wood flooring to sustainably sourced siding and decking. More on their sustainability initiatives to come.
Why Choose New Energy Works?
“Without our people and the craftsmanship and talents they bring to our organization, we are nothing,” says Fraser. New Energy Works believes that their teams are what carry their reputation. The company functions under an ESOP model, or Employee Stock Ownership Plan, one of about 8,000 ESOP businesses in the country — meaning they’re 100% employee-owned.
The crew that fabricates your timber frame in the studio is the same one that raises and installs the frame onsite. “From the field crews to our project management teams,” says Fraser, “our people care deeply about our craft and have the desire to build something beautiful.”
Another factor that sets them apart? Their dedication to sustainability. They use as much FSC-certified wood as possible, which ensures that wood comes from sustainably managed forests, and they’re a member of the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (NESEA). Their New York office is powered by solar panels and heated by timber scraps, and their bicoastal workshop locations, in New York and Oregon, help them minimize their shipping footprint.
And speaking of sustainability, New Energy Works also specializes in high-performance enclosures — off-site constructed and highly detailed walls, floors, and roof panels that can speed up your build and ensure a space that takes less energy to run.
Crafting with quality and authority ensures responsible building, too. The company is a member of the Timber Framers Guild and the AIA, and they have over 30 years of general contracting experience. “By combining high craft with responsibly sourced materials we can ensure that all our projects are energy efficient and enduring,” says Fraser.
New Energy Works’ Coastal Collaborations
When building a coastal project, “enduring” is the name of the game. “We create structures that elicit a balance of craft, efficiency, and engineering,” explains Fraser. “This is especially important when building in sensitive environments where protection from elements and long-term structural integrity is paramount.”
The company’s coastal projects run the gamut from contemporary to traditional. Their Dune Rider project, a modern vacation home by the protected dunes of Lake Michigan, was built to tread lightly on its landscape. A collaboration with designer Garth Goldstein and Harbor Design & Construction, the home features minimally treated timbers so they could be used both inside and outside the home, with a natural look that blends in with the home’s surroundings.
New Energy Works does more than just residential home projects. For their lakeside Building Traditions project in Shelburne, Vermont, the clients wanted a newly built party barn with generations-old charm — and between the structure’s vaulted ceilings, massive stone fireplaces, and cozy wood paneling throughout, New Energy Works delivered, in collaboration with Schafer Buccellato Architects and Cascade Builders.
For their Sand & Salt project on the island of Nantucket, New Energy Works partnered with Eliza Allés Interiors and Julius Pasys. Minimalist and modern, the family home has classic elements like simple beam structures, cedar shingles, wide plank flooring, and a stone fireplace along with breath-of-fresh-air touches like arched doorways and a floor-to-ceiling tiled bathroom.
And when vistas are the goal, timber frames allow for expanses of windows. New Energy Works adds the skill to your team so your timbers frame the view just right. Curving on Puget Sound, a Washington residence, captures both water and mountain vistas. “The more we looked at the site and the possible views, the more the design transitioned and evolved,” explains David Shirley, AIA of New Energy. “We angled the house in a soft arc which maximizes views of the sound and the Cascade Mountain range in the distance.”
Each waterfront project showcases the beauty of wood as structure and as shelter, says Fraser. “We love celebrating the beauty of wood through aesthetics, strength, durability, and harmonization into the surroundings.”
For more information on New Energy Works services and timber frame projects, visit newenergyworks.com.