Handshouse Studio is honored to announce that Jackson DuBois and Michael Burrey represented the Handshouse Studio Notre-Dame Project in the official reconstruction of Notre-Dame de Paris’ iconic timber spire in France!
The Handshouse Studio Notre Dame Project’s “Choir Truss #6” reconstruction being raised on the National Mall, Washington, DC (2021)
Michael Burrey, Traditional Carpenter, owner/operator of MLB Restorations (Plymouth, MA) and Preservation Carpentry faculty at the historic North Bennet Street School (Boston, MA) and Jackson DuBois, Professional Timber Framer, owner/operator of DuBois Timber Frames (Cooperstown, NY) and Executive Director of the Timber Framers Guild, were both vital participants in the Notre-Dame Project full-scale reconstruction of Choir Truss #6 in Washington, DC in 2021.
As a result of their participation in this ongoing hands-on educational project, DuBois and Burrey were selected to work on the official reconstruction of Notre-Dame de Paris in France! They were invited to work as members of the team of professional French carpenters of Asselin, one of the companies rebuilding Notre-Dame’s 315-foot timber spire, originally designed by 19th-century restoration architect Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc.
“We are thrilled to continue the Notre-Dame project through this collaboration with Asselin in France,” says Marie Brown, Executive Director of Handshouse.
Michael Burrey, Traditional Carpenter, owner/operator of MLB Restorations (Plymouth, MA) and Preservation Carpentry faculty at the historic North Bennet Street School (Boston, MA) participating in the Handshouse Studio Notre Dame Project 10-day workshop reconstructing Choir Truss #6 in Washington, DC (2021)
Michael Burrey, Traditional Carpenter, owner/operator of MLB Restorations (Plymouth, MA) and Preservation Carpentry faculty at the historic North Bennet Street School (Boston, MA) participating in the Handshouse Studio Notre Dame Project 10-day workshop reconstructing Choir Truss #6 in Washington, DC (2021)
“We are so grateful to all the collaborators who made this possible, and in particular to the North Bennet Street School, the Timber Framer Guild and their families for letting Jackson and Michael go represent the Notre-Dame Project as carpenters rebuilding Notre-Dame in France! Our goal to make this project a global gesture of solidarity among makers has become an active gift; an act of repair made by tools in the hands of talented professionals working with international neighbors, leaving marks both on the physical timbers now crowning Notre-Dame cathedral, and into the story of our shared history.”
Jackson DuBois, Professional Timber Framer, owner/operator of DuBois Timber Frames (Cooperstown, NY) and Executive Director of the Timber Framers Guild, participating in the Handshouse Studio Notre Dame Project 10-day workshop reconstructing Choir Truss #6 in Washington, DC (2021)
Beyond offering the services of their expert craftsmanship, DuBois and Burrey’s work helped illuminate the historic cathedral’s cultural heritage, offer a gesture of global solidarity among makers, and promote good will among neighbors. DuBois and Burrey acknowledged that they received just as much – if not more – in return. "It has been an incredible honor to be able to take part in this amazing endeavor,” DuBois said. “The rebuilding of Notre-Dame de Paris is not only a physical restoration but also a symbol of resilience, cultural preservation, and collective efforts to save an iconic landmark. Representing the timber framing community in this work has been an absolute privilege and has come with a deep sense of pride."
“Having the opportunity to live and work in France, and the camaraderie that developed between the French carpenters and ourselves to produce elements of the spire was deeply emotional,” Burrey said. “The quatrefoils, trefoils, and dormers we cut and carved are now installed on the spire in Paris!”
Jackson DuBois, Professional Timber Framer, owner/operator of DuBois Timber Frames (Cooperstown, NY) and Executive Director of the Timber Framers Guild, participating in the Handshouse Studio Notre Dame Project 10-day workshop reconstructing Choir Truss #6 in Washington, DC (2021)
DuBois and Burrey are just two of the many dedicated experts that have applied their skills toward the reconstruction of the cathedral. A scroll listing Dubois’ and Burrey’s names among nearly 2000 others who took part in reconstructing Notre-Dame is now embedded inside the newly installed rooster atop the spire they helped build!
In addition to serving as representatives of their respective organizations (the Timber Framers Guild and the North Bennet Street School, respectively), Dubois and Burrey acted as ambassadors of the Handshouse Studio MAKING/HISTORY Notre-Dame Project. The Notre-Dame Project started in the US in 2020 as an effort to bring Handshouse’s educational mission to the enormous task of recovering the cultural heritage lost in the Notre-Dame de Paris 2019 fire. The Notre-Dame Project is just one of many Handshouse MAKING/HISTORY projects that energize history outside of the traditional classroom through the reconstruction of large historic objects. Through the intensive investigation of a single object, doors open to understanding a wide range of related subjects –subjects that are usually studied independently. By taking a literal three-dimensional view of a historic object –and engaging in an intensive and interactive investigation of who built the object, how it was built, and why – a richly layered understanding of a moment in history is created.
The Notre-Dame Project’s full-scale reconstruction of Choir Truss #6 gained attention through a series of its exhibitions at Catholic University, the National Mall, the National Building Museum and the Millennium Gate Museum in Atlanta. earning it the audience of Notre-Dame restoration architects Philippe Villeneuve and Rémi Fromont, who came to Washington, DC in September 2022, in part to see both Choir Truss #6 and the 1:10 scale white oak model of La Forêt built by Handshouse participants. The project also came to the attention of Asselin and its Atlanta-based American subsidiary. Handshouse and Alexis Boutrolle of Asselin have been working together ever since to create this opportunity for American representatives to join Asselin carpenters on the official reconstruction of Notre-Dame’s timber spire – an effort that culminated in Dubois’ and Burrey’s recent trip.
“Education has been an essential part of Handshouse’s Notre-Dame Project all along,” said Lindsay Cook, PhD, project historian and architectural history professor at the Pennsylvania State University, “so I can think of no outcome more fitting than to have a dedicated teacher like Michael and an ambassador for the craft like Jackson working alongside such skilled counterparts at Asselin. I trust that students will benefit from the knowledge exchanged during this collaboration for years to come.”