Timber Framers Guild Forums Tools Timberframe Design Italianate style barns

Does anyone have a firm opinion about what a barn should look like in the Italianate style? The reason I ask is I may be talking with a living history museum about the reconstruction of their barn which burned. An architect has already designed a new barn but it is quite different than the relatively simple gambrel roof barn that burned. I am trying to decide if I should object to the drastic changes in design for a living history museum which historical accuracy is important. The new design has a hip roof, two sidewall barn doors in different locations than the original single sidewall barn door, a gable over one door, two cupolas, and different window arrangement. The new design is attractive but it does not seem appropriate to me to change the style so much and hip roof barns are extremely rare. The Italianate barns I see on the internet are of no particular style but often have a gable over the barn door, eaves overhangs (sometimes decorated), maybe a cupola. In other words any kind of barn which has been dressed up a little.

Thanks;
Jim

Here is a superb collection of porcelain figures modeled after real barns, including a classic Italianate barn. This answers part of my question. What I would like to hear is opinions about the variations in Italianate barn design from this classic example.

http://www.preservationnation.org/inform...arn-series.html

Jim

Jim, I take it they have pictures of the barn before it burned? I would object to a change. What is the architects background? Some can be a real stick in the mud. You may have to put some pea soup behind your name.

I think Vlach's barn book has some Italianate barns.

Hi Timberwrestler. I looked in Vlach's book and found nothing specific. I looked at several other barn books and still nothing specific. Thanks for the suggestion.

Tim: Their are many photos of the barn including some taken during the fire which give a sense of the framing, an awful sight! I had to remind myself of the Secretary's Standards for Reconstruction since this site is a National Historic Landmark.

http://www.nps.gov/hps/tps/standguide/reconstruct/reconstruct_standards.htm

Clearly the new design does not follow the voluntary but appropriate standards.

It will be interesting to have a chat with the architect and to see if the museum has any interest in abandoning the plans they spent a large percentage of the insurance money from the fire on.

Thanks;
Jim

Re-locating an existing barn or dismantled frame of the same style/ original use, or similar barn will give the living museum a building that already has it's own "history"...and might be more cost effective...and then they can add the "fluff" if they want.

Rooster

Hi Craig;

I like buildings that have their "own history". My local historical society museum includes a barn which now houses part of the collections. Nothing could be better than a museum building that is also an artifact.

However, the Secretary of the Interior's standards strictly require a replacement building be true to the original in every way which can be determined so reusing another building is highly unlikely.

I did get to the bottom of the drastic change in styles of the barn mentioned above. The 1860s barn was a large hip roof barn like what the architect has planned. The gambrel barn which burned was from 1920. The timber framer who designed the replacement frame referenced the gambrel barn as the original which is an easy error to make. I was all excited for a while because a gambrel roof barn in Maine from the 1860 would be extremely progressive. I was hoping it was such an early example of a type which developed in the Mid-West around this time period. There were a few early timber framed gambrel roof barns in Massachusetts, but extremely rare and I do not know of a surviving example. Anyway, the professionals are professional, though I think it would be good to reference the drastic change of design such as "going back to the original 19th century design" so the general public can easily see the rational behind historic reconstructions.

Thanks;
Jim