Together with the Friends of the Red Mill, the Timber Framers Guild fabricated and erected a 48 x 85-ft. open-air pavilion in Portland, Michigan. The pavilion will shelter a weekly farmers’ market as well as other community events and activities. It will be adjacent to the Red Mill, once the Portland Co-operative Company’s grain elevator and mill that milled the local farmer’s grains for livestock and markets (among other services) for almost 100 years. The mill was restored during the last years of the last century and the first years of this century by Ed Leik and his brother, our own Charles Leik, Guild treasurer 2014.
The pavilion features a Dutch gable roof with a cupola supported by five 48-ft. clear span king post trusses. The rough sawn timber for the frame is locally sourced and milled, Emerald borer-killed ash for the roof structure and white oak for the posts. Participants processed 24,000 bd. ft. in the roughly 675 pieces that comprised this frame.
A fascinating time-lapse video of the Red Mill project has come our way via Quarterline Media, Noreen Logel (Friends of the Red Mill), Will Denton, and Mack Magee. It provides powerful insight into what goes on during a project—clouds billowing endlessly, the shifting of timbers, the steady increase of people (both workers and observers), and the inevitable growth of the structure.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CslwJnBqtHY
Red Mill Pavilion Time Lapse