JAMESSCHULTZBUILDERS@gmail.com Phone: 616 238 2961
Some thoughts from Jimmy Schultz…
Take a look at these pictures of one of nature’s wonders: wood.
EACH PIECE OF WOOD TELLS A STORY, THEN IT BECOMES ONE
I know a lot of stories about wood, where it comes from, what it can do, how long it lasts, how it has had a starring role in the grand human story of building and architecture down through history. This is my favorite wood story. It concerns the grand dining hall at the New College school in Oxford. In its ceiling, built in the 1300s, are giant oak beams that give the building its powerful Gothic character under which historic conversations about science ethics and literature were held for centuries over meals of soup and game and bread. In the early 1900s, 600 years after the beams were set in place, it was discovered that the thick oak beams were infested with insects and were soon to crumble. Replacing them seemed impossible. Such dimensions hadn’t been used in construction for centuries. As engineers began to look at options for patching the damaged oak with steel someone suggested that there might be some big trees on the fringe acreage in the forest far from the main campus that could be harvested. The builders had no experience harvesting trees but they asked the custodians of the forested part of the campus about the older largest oaks. The custodians smiled and said “We were wondering when you would call. These trees were planted long ago to be the replacement beams for the Cathedral and dining hall and the other big buildings. They are yours.”
I love wood because it represents a living relationship between humans and the trees we depend on. If we maintain that relationship our places of living and working will always be viable and return their value to the people who live in these life giving buildings. It is this principle of life sustaining construction and community that my company: James Schultz Builders, brings to every project. I have been collecting and recycling hardwood, pine, antique and vintage beams and barnwood for decades. We, of course, work with every building material used today but our special affection for wood reminds us that building is one of the oldest acts of creation in human history. We believe that the quality of our buildings and how they coexist with the other residents of our world, is a key measure of our health and morality as a society. We also think wood is really cool and awesome and hope you will be as excited about our wood based building solutions as we are.
JAMESSCHULTZBUILDERS@gmail.com Phone: 616 238 2961