Powell couple builds life of timber

Posted 10/25/19

About 20 years ago, Chris Gunn was a genetic engineer working in a private lab in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, when the funding ran out. He had a friend who was working in timber framing and needed some …

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Powell couple builds life of timber

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About 20 years ago, Chris Gunn was a genetic engineer working in a private lab in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, when the funding ran out. He had a friend who was working in timber framing and needed some help. Needing a job, he took the work.

So taken by the enjoyment of the craft, Gunn left genetic engineering behind for a career in timber frame construction, eventually starting Powell-based Gunnstock Timber Frames.

“Every day there’s a sense of accomplishment. You can step back and see what you’ve done,” he said.

His wife, Laura Viklund, who got her master’s degree in architecture from Harvard, forms the other half of Gunnstock Timber Frames. She does the design work.

“I love creating these structures from her head and my hands,” Gunn said. 

Timber frame construction involves creating frames out of heavy timbers — wood beams larger than two-by-fours — over which insulated panels are placed.

“Everyone thinks we build log homes,” Viklund said of what people think of when they say “timber frame.”

The technique goes back to the Stone Age and can be seen in architecture throughout the Medieval period. More common at that time was the use of infill between the timbers, such as wattle and daub, but now the frames are exposed internally.

This is partly due to aesthetics, but it’s also good for energy efficiency. Anytime in construction you have wood going from the inside to the outside, you have what’s called a “thermal bridge.” With the frame wrapped in insulation, the structure maintains heat a lot better.

“This is what separates our structuring craft from the traditional log home,” Gunn said.

Viklund also believes it cuts down on flies buzzing around.

“Flies love logs,” she said.

The interior has a lot more versatility when it comes to decor, as well. You’re not just looking at wood — not that timber framers have anything against wood.

“We work with wood. We make a living with wood. We love wood,” Gunn said.

“But we’d prefer a little less wood,” Viklund added, completing her husband’s thought.

Gunn continued, “You can have sheetrock. You can paint your room colors. You can do lots of different things, where you’re limited in a log home.”

Besides doing complete timber frame builds, they also can do housing additions onto other types of construction. They call them hybrids.

 

Opportunity

Before the move to Powell in 2007, Gunn traveled all over the country as an itinerant journeyman. Viklund was studying sculpture at the Massachusetts College of Art. While volunteering her time to build timber frame homes in the White Mountain National Forest on a school project, she met Gunn, who was an instructor.

In 2007, they bought some property in the Willwood area southwest of Powell. While Viklund went off to Harvard for grad school, Gunn stayed in Wyoming and started what would become Gunnstock Timber Frames.

It was at a Harvard conference that Viklund met Alban Bassuet, an internationally recognized acoustician. Bassuet was helping plan a small performance space at an art center in Fishtail, Montana, called Tippet Rise. Over cheeseburgers in Red Lodge, Bassuet talked about wanting a timber frame Vermont barn for small musical performances.

“We had no idea that’s what the end result was going to be. They definitely talked it down when they first introduced it,” Gunn recalled.

“We had no idea of the recording studio and the acoustics,” Viklund added.

The end result was the Tippet Rise Art Center’s Olivier Music Barn, which has hosted a number of internationally acclaimed musicians. The interior contains a larch-wood timber frame with wood paneling, while the exterior of the structure is rusted weatherizing steel, the rust providing a protective coating.

Rather than putting up a shiny galvanized steel wrap over the timber frames and waiting for it to rust, which would have been garish, they decided to pre-rust the metal.

Gunn and Viklund accomplished the pre-rust through experiments at their shop in Powell. They consulted artists who worked with metal, including some local brass artists, to figure out the best way to rust the material. They tried a number of concoctions, heat and techniques — concoctions that included salt, vinegar and Rockstar energy drink — before finally getting the look just right.

“It looks like leather,” Gunn said proudly. “It looks super cool. And we could probably not do it just like that again. It was quite an experience.”

 

Comfort shop

Gunn and Viklund continued to take on work at Tippet Rise, including Will’s Shed (which is a dining pavilion), three artist residences and a number of sculptures.

They spent quite a bit of time working on the site, but a lot of the work, as with the rusted metal, happens at their shop on the Willwood.

This helps them contend with the region’s short building season. In the comfort of their heated shop, they design the pieces and preassemble everything to make sure it all fits together properly. Then they label the pieces, break it down and ship it to the construction site during construction season. Then the frame is lifted up and the structure completed, which takes considerably less time than the shop work.

Sometimes mistakes happen, and “a good carpenter can always fix his mistakes,” Gunn said, but they try to avoid errors, as they get expensive. While a mistake is being addressed, heavy equipment and operators sit idle. That means more wages and possibly more lodging costs.

“Being on site is expensive,” Gunn said.

Gunn and Viklund’s building process allows them to work pretty much all over the country, while still doing much of the work at home. This is especially helpful now that they have two young children.

At least one of them is taking an interest in the family business. In a smaller shop below their house, where Gunnstock began, is a crayon stick figure in a hard hat. The jagged letters around it say, “I want to be a construction worker when I grow up.”

 

Regional wood

In the frames they build, Gunn and Viklund try to match up the wood species with those native to the region where they’re building. This has a number of benefits to the structures, including pest and climate resistance.

Building in Wyoming is a bit easier because of the drier climate. When timber dries up, it shrinks. So taking frames from a humid climate and constructing in a drier one can lead to warping and twisting.

“We try to be conscious of putting in wood that is at least somewhat regional,” Gunn said.

In this region, they use primarily Douglas fir, larch and mountain woods. They don’t build out of oak. Not only is it cost prohibitive, they’d have to dry it for years before using it.

“We don’t look very good when a year later a frame is twisted and gnarled and opened up,” Gunn said. 

A good timber frame build, Gunn said, can last a century.

Viklund and Gunn have enjoyed a lot of fortunate opportunities to perform their craft on interesting projects, such as Tippet Rise. They’ve developed a good reputation in the field and have had a lot of success doing what they love.

“We’ve been extremely lucky,” Gunn said.

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