Basic House Framing

Simple but significant: Artist's impressions of $50m memorial for victims of ...

It’s a piece of basic but poignant architecture, with white marble walls framing a ceremonial gateway.

New drawings of the first phase of the Flight 93 memorial were released on Monday ahead of its dedication in time for the 10th anniversary of 9/11 this autumn.

The gateway provides an entrance to a walkway tracing the path the aeroplane followed before crashing into the rural field almost 10 years ago near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

It took the passengers of Flight 93 half an hour to do possibly the most heroic act this century.

But it's taken ten long years for their bravery to be recognised with a memorial at the crash site.

Congress passed a law authorising a memorial just one year after 9/11. But the National Park Service and families of Flight 93's victims have spent the last nine years fighting to actually acquire the land for the memorial.

There is a temporary memorial of sorts at the site but at one point the park service was forced to move it after a mining company that owned the land attempted to get donations from visitors.

They and the families spent years arguing over the sale. In 2008 the federal government weighed in threatening to use eminent domain to take the land.

Several local coal companies caved and sold, but not before they had bickered with the park service over who would clean up the minerals left over from prior mining activities.

Then there was the design of the actual memorial. Several protesters led by a family member of Flight 93 complained the plans included hidden pro-Islamic messages.

It was finally given the go ahead in 2009 only to be halted by a New Jersey construction company who challenged the bidding process.

Then there was the small matter of raising the $50million needed.

Another rendering shows a separate memorial gateway - an open-air, concrete structure, with a smaller glass enclosure helping to provide shelter during bad weather.

Only relatives of the 40 passengers and crew who died will be allowed to enter the actual crash site, but the public will be able to view it.

There will be 40 vertical marble slabs along one side of the flight path walkway, each with a name of one of the victims on it.

The Families of Flight 93 say about $50million in public and private money has been raised for the project and the dedication of the first phase is scheduled for September 10.

More private funding is still needed to finish the remaining elements of the memorial, including a grove of trees, a visitor centre and an entry portal with high walls framing the plane's flight path.

Major American Timber Framing Systems up to 1900

The timber framing system is a centuries-old method developed by medieval Europeans. Its fundamental precepts have remained in place since then, but the physical manifestations of these fundamentals have taken on a variety of shapes. In America, from 1600-1900, we can see this variety develop. This paper will explore major American framing systems in said period in three sections: 1) will provide an overview of the components and interrelations of a basic frame; 2) will examine how joining techniques (practice) is influenced by stylistic concerns (aesthetics) and 3) will compare a 19th century New England house to a 19th century Chesapeake house.

Basic Framing Techniques and Theory

The whole unit represented in a complete timber frame may be broken-down into three subsections in order to better understand their intra/inter-workings: 1) the floor frame, 2) the wall frame and 3) the roof/ceiling frame. The floor frame is a combination of “[…] posts, beams, sill plates, joists and subfloor” (Anderson, 2002, pg. 19). The components that comprise the floor frame are arranged in order to reduce the amount of shrinkage and settling of the wall and roof frames. Said movements are owed to internal and external factors: the moisture content of the wood combined with the stresses and strains inherent in a frame, and the external forces of nature and living to which a frame is exposed. Post and beam meet at a 90 degree angle at the ends of the structure providing a horizontal base and vertical extension. The beams are crossected by joists which provide lateral support and stiffness to the frame. The sub-floor does not provide structural support; it provides a skin for the interior flooring.

The floor frame provides a basis upon which a wall frame can be constructed. Anderson recommends the following wood-types for use in wall frames: Douglas-fir, hemlocks, southern pine, spruce and white fir. The reasons he gives for these specifications are “[…] good stiffness, freedom from warp, good nail-holding ability and ease of working” (ibid, pg. 31). The components of a wall-frame include the vertical studs and their horizontal counterparts. The former are divided into the following types: single-storey and two storey. The latter are comprised of bearers, girts, window headers/sills top plates and joists. Additionally, single-storey studs may be reinforced by diagonal braces; these braces relieve pressure between beam and post, while adding stability to the studs.

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