home + design
New Energy Works/(c) Loren Nelson Photography
The timber-frame outdoor pavilion takes advantage of the home’s 5 acres.
The Great Outdoors A timber-frame outdoor pavilion draws a West Linn family outside written by Melissa Dalton
WHEN DANIEL HARKAVY and his wife bought their West Linn house in 2013, its 5-acre plot included woodland, pasture and lovely valley views, but the deck off the back door overlooked a swing set. On warm weather days, you might sit on the deck’s built-in bench while waiting for the barbecue to fire up, but there was little else to beckon anyone outdoors. Yet the prospect of enjoying all that acreage was just what had attracted the family to buy in the first place. “We moved from three-quarters of an acre to 5 acres,” said Harkavy, an executive coach. “I always had a dream of living out on a bit more land and having more to play with.” The classic timber-frame home that came with the land had excellent bones, including vaulted ceilings and exposed beams, but the worn fixtures and finishes weren’t quite to the new owners’ taste. They approached New Energy Works, an Oregon and New York-based firm that specializes in designing and building timber frame structures, for a renovation. “They really liked the location,” Jonathan Orpin, founder of New Energy Works, said. “They wanted to know if we could do anything to help them like their house.” The resulting design plan encompassed a makeover, inside and out. In the main house, the team opened up the floorplan, replaced windows and cut new doors, then updated the kitchens and baths. Outside, the couple swapped out the existing deck for 36 1859 OREGON’S MAGAZINE
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a pool, and Orpin’s team installed a timber-frame pavilion that complements the style of the main house. “We saw it as an extension of living space, with a kitchen and dining room, and casual hangout space, regardless of the time of year. We wanted it to be all-weather,” Harkavy said.
Old-World Craftsmanship Timber-frame construction is a traditional method, defined by posts and beams hewn from heavy timbers, as opposed to pre-cut lumber, and connected together by mortise and tenon joinery. Orpin’s outfit typically roughs out the joinery with a CNC machine, then finishes it with hand tools. “It’s structure as craft,” Orpin said. The longevity of such sturdily built buildings, as well as their distinct aesthetic, is part of their appeal. Think 19th-century buildings in Europe. The Harkavys’ pavilion is composed of big reclaimed logs pulled from an industrial building. “I love reclaimed timbers because of their story,” Orpin said. “They immediately give us a sense that they have a place in history. These timbers have been somewhere before us and they’ll probably be somewhere after us.” His team cut the pavilion’s posts, rafters and ridge pole in their McMinnville workshop and fit them together, “kind of like a Lincoln Log set,” Harkavy said.
