Handshouse Studio’s Notre-Dame de Paris Truss Project, welcomed the restoration architects of Notre-Dame de Paris to view the full-scale replica of a the Handshouse Notre-Dame truss.

Philippe Villeneuve and Rémi Fromont, Chief Architects of Historic Monuments, came to Washington, DC to give their first public talk in the United States since the catastrophic 2019 fire that badly damaged the cathedral Notre-Dame de Paris. Punctuating their visit on Monday, September 26, 2022, was a series of events in the nation’s capital celebrating the makers of Notre-Dame de Paris, then and now.

Philippe Villeneuve and Remi Fromont, Chief Architects of the Notre-Dame de Paris reconstruction in Paris viewing the Handshouse Studio full-scale replica of a Notre-Dame de Paris wooden roof truss. We reassebled the truss and raised it at the Catholic University in Washington, DC September 26th, 2022 specifically for them to see on their first visit to the US. Remi Fromont (center) is pictured here climbing over timbers, eager to get a closer look at the ax-marks and joinery of the reconstruction we built using his drawings of Choir Truss #6. With the help of this intricate hand-drawn survey that he and his colleague Cédric Trentesaux created of the catherdrals’ entire wooden structural before the 2019 fire, and with traditional tools, methods and materials brought together by so many talented makers, architects, and scholars, this replica is a true collaborative effort made to reawaken this lost object from history.