Building a Landmark
Celebrating 25 years of business, Big Timberworks offers diversity in sustainable building practices
Built with recycled redwood siding, metal, board formed concrete and recycled styrene block with stucco, this home in the Bridger mountain range
was meant to look as if it had always been there, a collection of several ranch buildings grown together. Photo By:
JK LawrenceWhat other builders consider
scrap, Big Timberworks has transformed into a custom furniture collection. For this room divider pressed tin was salvaged from a 1940’s granary and combined with
reclaimed cedar; the table features recycled plow disks; and the bench incorporates industrial gravel screen with reclaimed fir Photo By:
Karl NewmannThis modern addition was attached
to an existing log cabin located up Trail Creek, designed for two chefs to have room to maneuver and have a gorgeous view through the curved wall Photo By:
JK LawrenceThis home
was designed to compliment, rather than dominate, the landscape. It is built from stone from western Montana logs reclaimed from Great Salt Lake railroad trestle.
Salvaged metal roof, recycled from an old chicken farm, board-formed concrete recycled pickle-tank fir siding. Photo courtesy of Big Timberworks
One of the homeowners loved the clean sleek lines associated with metal and
modern design, and the other home owner was more interested in the warmth
that wood and organic shapes can lend. Photo By:
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DRIVING DOWN HIGHWAY 191 OUTSIDE OF BOZEMAN A MASSIVE CLOCK TOWER MARKS THE TOWN OF GALLATIN GATEWAY AND THE OFFICES OF THE CONSTRUCTION COMPANY BIG TIMBERWORKS. Inspired by the architectural shape of a fire lookout, the structure stands 60-feet high and is built with a lattice work of heavy timbers, boom logs from the Frazier River in British Columbia, as well as heavy timbers from a dock in Seattle and the Rogue River in Oregon. At its pinnacle is a forged metal weather vane that wraps around a sculpted metal tree, significant of a centuryold tradition of timberframers that celebrates a structure upon completion; two working clocks face north and south.
“I wanted to build a landmark that served a purpose as a sign for the company and as a function for the community,” said Merle Adams, founder and CEO of Big Timberworks.
The clock tower is an apt metaphor for Adam’s philosophy and the 25 years of success BT has experienced under his direction — one that values the rare combination of the artistic and pragmatic. Appropriately the tower also symbolizes Adams’ priorities for building community through responsible business practices and accountability. The result is another kind of landmark: A profitable employee-owned company that applies sustainability and quality craftsmanship within all its products.
When Adams started as a builder in 1983, there wasn’t much happening in Montana’s construction industry. He introduced timberframe style to projects that he worked on
and later when the high-profile listing of the northern Spotted Owl on the endangered species list impacted the logging industry by restricting the harvest of old growth trees, Adams made a conscious shift toward utilizing reclaimed wood and recycled materials. It proved to be a lucrative choice, as the demand for a rustic style of architecture that suited Montana and the surrounding region from homeowners began to pick up in the early 1990s and remains a strong market even now.
  
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