Pemberton Downtown Barn

A Treasured Community Gathering Space

In the Village of Pemberton, British Columbia, the Guild built a massive 50 x 150-ft. open-air barn pavilion to shelter community events. These include farmers' markets as well as dances, concerts, meetings, and so on. 

"It's a great building, it pays homage to the valley's history, both farming and logging," said Daniel Sailland, CAO for the Village of Pemberton.

The Barn had upwards of 60 people measuring, sawing and preparing 60,000 board feet of timber, from 12 inch x 12 inch milled purlins, the longitudinal supports for the roof, to magnificent, five-tonne, 200-year-old fir logs. In all, 660 pieces of lumber were prepped, fabricated into specific sections of the barn, laid out on the ground and hoisted into place. It took close to 20,000 construction hours. The entire construction process was completed in two weeks.

Starting with a concept from Mike Beganyi, then refined by engineer Robin Zirnhelt, the frame had lots of large-dimension sticks to test the accuracy of layout and cutting. Also included are eight round logs 20 in. x 45 ft. as top and bottom chords in the longitudinal trusses. Large snow loads and the possibility of earthquakes pushed the design to large timbers, long diagonal struts and tension rods, and quite a bit of hardware.

Local Partner
Village of Pemberton, British Columbia

Local Partner Hero
Suzanne Bélanger

Local TFG hero
Randy Churchill

Notable aspects
Exceptional collaboration with the village--they were very well managed and they set the pace. Very large project. Participant education ranged from 100-level introductory topics like sharpening and how to properly hold a circular saw, to advanced topics like raising plans and project management. Schoolchildren, local workers took part.  Multi-crane raising with a little hand raising thrown in.

TFG leaders
Randy Churchill, Collin Stotts, Rob Geoghan-Morphet, Leon Buckwalter, Steve Lawrence, Alicia Spence, Lon Tyler, Fred Provost. Design Mike Beganyi and Robin Zirnhelt.

Blog
Timber Framers Guild in-process blog

News

• Community Barn to be built in spring / Pique News Magazine
• The barn springs to life in Pemberton's downtown / Pique News Magazine

Tube

• Pemberton Calendar
• Shaw TV Sea To Sky
• Dave Steers Time Lapse

Photographer
Mack Magee, Randy Churchill

Narrative

Scantlings 184, 185, 186