Curved Roof Barn in Oregon

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From our Tumblr
Photo by Lloyd Kahn

During my bookstore tour in Oregon in June, I took a few days off to drive around in the Willamette Valley (south of Portland) to hunt for barns. It’s a beautiful area, kind of like a mini-Sacramento Valley — flat, rich farmland, abundant water, with steep mountain ranges on 3 sides. I spotted this barn with it’s gracefully curved roof and did my usual trespassing to shoot the exterior.

There was a cabinet maker’s shop next to it. I stopped in and met Mackenzie Strawn, and he said I could go inside the barn. Ooh-hoo! It was one of those barn moments. Everything was working here. Proportion, scale, carpentry, efficiency — plus color and light.

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Eastside

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Westside

The rafters were framed with what looked like rough 1×10’s laminated together (with old-school nails). I believe the carpenter laminated them, then cut a curve along the top of the laminated “beam.”

Mackenzie measured it for me: it was 24′ wide, 32′ long, 26′ height to the ridge. There are a number of curved-roof barns in the vicinity.

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Detail of eave — see interior reverse curve framing in above right photo.

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