Saving designs (at least) for future replicas

Hello,
You've probably all seen barns become orange glows in the night sky as well as those that just fade away and an idea mentioned in our town's well-funded historical society is one that may have already been discussed here. That is, to thoroughly measure all of our town's existing post and beam barns (~20 left)and developing modern, serviceable architectural drawings of them so that at least their designs will survive forever and can be precisely rebuilt many years later. It seems the shame of a lost barn is not that the structure is gone but that we never wrote down what made it unique like pitch of the roof or the spacing of the rafters and joists and the thickness of the floor boards. Has anyone in this profession done such community/historical society project?
I would appreciate any thoughts you have on this. Thanks -- Emory

What you have described is one of the main reasons for the existance of the Guild's Traditional Timberframe Research and Advisory Group (TTRAG). One of the requirements for membership is to document the construction and joinery of an old barn. I suggest that you contact Rudy Christain for more details.