VIEW FROM MAIN STREET

The owner of a large residence converted to retail shops on Main Street in Chatham, Massachusetts also owned the vacant property adjacent to the house. He came to the decision that he wanted to construction retail building on the vacant property, with a 'barn' like appearance, as though it belonged to the original house. Although that was an unlikely scenario for Main Street Chatham, we decided to accept this challenge.

Although traditional in appearance, the Barn uses contemporary stressed-skin panels on a post & beam timber frame. For those uninitiated to stressed-skin panels, these are a laminated panel system constructed of plywood to the exterior for nailing, 5 1/2" rigid polystyrene insulation and gypsum wallboard to the interior. Wrapping stressed-skin panels around a timber frame provides continuous, high efficient insulation from exterior weather conditions, not interrupted by wood studs used in typical construction, and leaves the attractive post and beams fully exposed on the interior.

The first and so-far only tenant of the Barn has been a business selling antiques from Great Britain. Anxous to move into their new home, they have already deposit an antique English telephone booth near the entrance to the building, as can be seen in the photograph above. Please click on the photograph for a larger view.