MEET OUR TEAM / Bios

Handshouse Notre-Dame de Paris Truss Project Leadership

Rick and Laura Brown, Co-Founders of Handshouse 

Rick and Laura Brown share a passion for making. Co-founders of Handshouse Studio, they have worked together on a wide variety of sculpture, architecture, and educational collaborations since they met in 1970.

Both sculptors, Laura and Rick have developed an extensive body of sculptural installations exhibited nationally and internationally, and have played a part in the development of the Land Art Movement. Visit Rick and Laura Brown/Sculpture to learn more.

Rick and Laura founded and managed Morgan Payne Concepts (1982-1992), a design/build firm that brought together their expression of form and space with their skills as makers to reimagine the functional manifestations of house and home. Laura, the licensed contractor, and Rick, the trained architect, worked hands-on to complete over 15 full-house renovations.

Laura and Rick are both lifetime teachers. Rick taught at University of Texas (1975-1977), and The Ohio State University (1977-1981). Rick and Laura have both taught at Massachusetts College of Art and Design (Rick since 1987, and Laura since 1995). They both share a particular interest in teaching through a learn-by-doing approach, in creating opportunities for community interaction, and demonstrating the adventure of discovery by leading as fellow researchers/learners alongside their students.

It is from this shared love of learning, drive and energy for making, discipline for extensive research, and passion for creating community that Handshouse Studio was born. 
rick@handshouse.org and laura@handshouse.org

Marie Brown, Executive Director of Handshouse Studio

Marie is a maker, writer, and doer, who received received her MFA in Directing from the University of Texas at Austin, and her BA in Music and Theatre from the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA. She is drawn to collaborations that invite innovative, multi-disciplinary, and educational approaches, build connections between, cultivate curiosity, and empower the voice, body, heart, and hand. 

Marie joined the Handshouse Studio team of directors in 2018. She has also participated as Project Manager and Workshop Leader for the Gourd Banjo Project Workshops/Exhibitions (2018-2020), Faculty for the Toys For Elephants: Thailand travel programs (2019-2020), Project Leader for the Trojan Horse Project (2017-2020), Program Coordinator for the Gwozdziec Synagogue Project: Poland travel programs (2011-2012), Associate Director of Handshouse Studio (2003-2004), Management Assistant for the Bushnell Turtle Project (2002). Marie is eager to continue the organization’s legacy of making learning adventurous through exceptional hands-on projects, while also working with the founders to develop new ways to share the internationally recognized Handshouse experience with more diverse audiences.  marie@handshouse.org

Nat Crosbly, Architect and  Handshouse Leader of La Forét Model Project

Nat Crosby is an architect who began working with Handshouse in 2002 on the Bruges and Norwell projects as a student at Wentworth Institute of Technology. Later he continued working with Handshouse on the crane projects and Polish synagogue projects. As a teacher’s assistant on the Poland travel programs he helped the students document and interpret the historic structures for the synagogue projects. Nat has worked for various preservation and adapted use architecture firms in Boston and is at Sasaki Associates. Some notable projects have been the reuse of brick mill buildings for housing, moving and restoring a timber church into an art library, a terracotta clad high-rise, and to help revitalize Boston City Hall Plaza. He is the chair of his town’s historical commission which strives to protect the town’s historical resources, increase public awareness of its heritage and the value of preservation. As a maker, Nat enjoys restoring his house, building furniture, and making toys for his kids. 

Lindsay Cook, Assistant Teaching Professor of Architectural History, Notre-Dame de Paris Truss and La Forét Model ProjectProject Historian

Lindsay S. Cook (she/her/hers) is an architectural historian, medievalist, digital humanist, translator, and digital preservation advocate. A specialist in medieval European architecture, Dr. Cook’s current research addresses architectural and artistic responses to the Gothic cathedral Notre-Dame of Paris and medievalism in African American architecture. Notre-Dame Cathedral: Nine Centuries of History, her English translation of the French-language monograph co-authored by Dany Sandron and Andrew Tallon, was published by Penn State University Press in 2020, and her article “Technology to Freeze Time at Lassus and Viollet-le-Duc’s Notre-Dame of Paris” recently appeared in a special issue of the critical historic preservation journal Future Anterior. Forthcoming peer-reviewed publications shed light on medieval practices of architectural citation and architectural portraiture and representations of the working class in the context of cathedrals and parish churches in medieval France.    Deeply committed to the digital humanities, Dr. Cook has contributed to the projects Mapping Gothic, Life of a Cathedral: Notre-Dame of Amiens, and Musiconis, and she chairs the Digital Resources Committee of the International Center of Medieval Art (ICMA). She is a board member of the scholarly association Scientifiques de Notre-Dame, a member of the advisory board of the non-profit educational organization Handshouse Studio, and editor of The Notre-Dame Translation Project, which makes reliable information about the history, conservation, and restoration following the catastrophic 2019 fire of the cathedral of Paris accessible to students and the general public.  

Dr. Cook teaches upper-level courses about the architectural history of the medieval world, as well as broader architectural history surveys. www.lindsayscook.com

Jackson DuBois, Professional Timber Framer, owner/operator of DuBoisTimber Frames (Cooperstown, NY) and Executive Director of the Timber Framers Guild,

DuBois is Certified Journeyed Timber Framer with the Timber Framers Guild and has been timber framing for 18 years on a wide variety of projects both domestically and abroad with diverse populations. As a result of his participation in the ongoing hands-on educational Notre-Dame Project, Burrey was selected to work on the official reconstruction of Notre-Dame de Paris in France among 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. DuBois experience ranges from full scribed historic reproductions, hand hewn and cut with hand tools, to modern heavy timber construction and heavy machinery operation. DuBois was elected President of the Timber Framers Guild in 2023.

Michael Burrey, Traditional Carpenter, owner/operator of MLB Restorations (Plymouth, MA), Preservation Carpentry faculty North Bennet Street School (Boston, MA).

Michael Burrey is a preservation carpenter who specializes in timber-frame joinery and has researched and re-created 17th century methods of roof thatching, interior walls, and paint finishes. As a result of his participation in the ongoing hands-on educational Notre-Dame Project, Burrey was selected to work on the official reconstruction of Notre-Dame de Paris in France among 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. After studying Early American and Colonial Life as an undergraduate, Burrey worked as an Interpretive Artisan at Plimoth Plantation researching and interpreting colonial building techniques. In 1999, Michael established MLB Restorations in order to work on the restoration and preservation of historic buildings and to encourage the design of new structures in harmony with traditional and sustainable building methods. His carpentry skill has also been recognized by his selection in 2014 by the Historic Royal Palaces to carry out the hewing and squaring of new timbers to be used in the repair of the Tower of London.

Tonya Ohnstad, Associate Dean for Graduate Studies at The Catholic University of America and Faculty for “La Forét” Model project

Tonya Ohnstad is a designer and educator based in Washington DC. Her professional focus, as a practitioner and professor, is understanding the expanding role of the designer as global citizen in an era of massive change. She is interested in the intersection and innovations between natural construction and new technologies.
Tonya has worked on design projects across the world. She is currently a partner at Rhetra, a highly conceptual design lab that is currently in construction on a prototype girls’s school in Kenya. She has previously worked at Ateliers Jean Nouvel on projects in Doha and Rio. In Oslo, she worked at Naarud Stokke Wig on urban scale projects.
In the United States, Tonya worked in Los Angeles as a junior architect at Gehry Partners. She also worked in Boston at Kennedy Violich Architects, where she was the design lead for 34th Street Ferry Landing in Manhattan and in Mexico on the award-winning and patented Portable Light project.
As an professor, Tonya has been teaching and coordinating studios, seminars on Public Interest Design, construction methods and materials, design tools, Earth Construction Technologies and summer design programs at University of Maryland, Catholic University of America, Northeastern University and Harvard University.

Tonya has a Masters in Architecture from Harvard Graduate School of Design. She graduated Suma Cum Laude from the University of Minnesota with a BA in architecture and French. Tonya currently lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland with her husband, four children, dog and fish.

Rob Duarte, Handshouse Studio, Board Member and Handshouse Leader of “La Forét” Project

Rob Duarte is Associate Professor in the Department of Art at The Florida State University, where he teaches sculpture, digital fabrication, interactive art, and physical computing. He also serves as Co-Director of the FSU Facility for Arts Research.
Rob earned an MFA in Visual Arts from the University of California San Diego, a BFA in Sculpture from the Massachusetts College of Art & Design, and BS in Business Information Systems with a minor in Computer & Information Science from the University of Massachusetts. At UCSD, Rob was an Ujima Scholar and a San Diego Fellow.
Rob was invited to join the Board of Directors in 2020, though he has been a loyal and active Handshouse participant since the first day of his MassArt orientation in 2001. He has taken part in many Handshouse projects, including the Bushnell Turtle, the crane projects in the US and the Czech republic, the Zabludow Synagogue Model and Door project , several Wooden Synagogue project field research trips to Poland and as faculty leader for two Gwozdziec Synagogue/ Making/History travel programs to Poland: a timber frame workshop in Sanok, and a painting workshop in Kazimierz Dolny.
Rob Duarte, raised in New England, currently lives in Tallahassee, Florida with his wife and two children. He has an active sculpture practice exhibiting his works regionally, nationally and internationally.

Gerald David, Lead Carpenter, Full-Scale Truss Workshop 2021 - 2022

Gerald David owns and operates GFD Woodworking, LLC in Duluth Minnesota with a focus on designing and creating small residential timber framed structures. Gerald teaches his trade at North House Folk School in Grand Marais Minnesota and at Timber Framers Guild projects. He also offers learning opportunities in his company, working with owners and employing craftspeople new to the trade.
Gerald learned his trade in his native Aachen, Germany, moving to the United States after completing his Wanderschaft, a three year traditional Journey in the trade. This journey had him traveling and working throughout Germany and many neighboring countries including France and Switzerland as well as the United States, giving Gerald a broad base of knowledge in different styles of western timber framing. gfdwoodworking.com

Mez Welch, Lead Carpenter, Full-Scale Truss Workshop 2021 - 2022

Autumn Jaimez “Mez” Welch is a lifelong learner stumbling upon his passion of timber framing in 2005 when filling in for his mom… the rest is history. Mez quickly jumped on the opportunity of a 4 year apprenticeship with Timberworks of Interest owner, Al Anderson, of Floyd Virginia, rapidly becoming quite proficient in all aspects of timber work.  Starting his own business in 2009 Wolf Holler Timber frames and eventually becoming Rockbridge Timberframes in Lexington Virginia, Mez’s love is sourcing local species by walking the woods and forests then working the organic live edge into prominent sections in a frame or crafting a piece of furniture. 

He brought this skill into the forest as a Project Leader for the Notre Dame de Paris Truss project last spring, taking on the job of sourcing the 35 white oak logs needed for the full-scale reconstruction of Notre Dame’s Choir Truss # 6. Walking the forests from dispersed locations across 400,000 acres of Rockbridge County, VA, Mez selected the timbers following the French medieval protocol set by our project partners, Charpentier san Frontier, identifying specific trees to suit the dimensions described by the drawings given to us by Remi Fromont, hand-felling, and horse logging many of them, demonstrating a commitment to both sustainable and historical forestry practices.   

Mez, also committed to learning-through-teaching, has participated as a leader in over ten years of community timber frame projects with Virginia Military Institute’s Corp of Cadets, nationwide with Timber Framers Guild projects, and on the Handshouse Studio Gwozdziec Wooden Synagogue project in Sanok Poland. Mez lives in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, Lexington, with his son Riven.

Peter Henrickson, Lead Carpenter, Notre-Dame de Paris Truss Project

Peter came to timber framing with a background in log building and building backcountry bridges on public lands. He has been designing and constructing timber framed buildings and teaching timber framing at North House Folk School in Grand Marais, MN since 1998. While much of his work has been with modern timber framed structures, his interest tends toward the traditional designs and construction methods of early North America, Scandinavia and Europe. Peter brought this knowledge to task in the 2021 Notre Dame de Paris Truss Project workshop, bringing a knowledge of historical methods to practice in the reconstruction of for Choir Truss #6 by leading the cleaving two paired queen posts from one log. He will be working in France on the Choir roof framing of Notre Dame de Paris in 2023. Peter lives and works in Grand Marais, MN

www.peterhenrikson.com

Miles Jenness, Lead Carpenter, Notre-Dame de Paris Truss Project

Miles Jenness is a timberframe carpenter with over 15 years of experience specializing in restoration and preservation. For the last 8 years he has run Vermont Heavy Timber, a company focused on preserving the timber frame structures of New England and beyond. Routinely sought for expertise in traditional carpentry and knowledge of historic timber framing, Miles regularly travels throughout New England and beyond to work on notable preservation projects for private landowners, non-profit organizations and local governments. Miles and his company also design and build new timber frames, using the wealth of knowledge gained through the inspection and work on hundreds of traditional timber frames.

Alicia Spence, 2021 Full Scale Truss Project Manager, Timber Framer in Florence, MA

My career with wood began on the forestry crew for my college where I was involved with forestry management, timber harvest and working the sawmill. Post college I worked for eight years in our nations forests and parks, in places ranging from the Smokey Mountains to Kenai Fjord in Alaska, building backcountry bridges and other wooden structures. After moving to town, I began focusing on timber framing, a trade I have followed for more than twenty-five years. Through all of life's ups and downs, the greatest gift work brings is the privilege of working on crews that approach work with curiosity, dedication and joy. It is for this reason I have long championed the value of community building projects with the Timber Framers Guild, Handshouse Studio, and independently in my home town. It my abiding pleasure to witness new carpenters  share in this fundamental human experience brought by carefully cutting and raising frames.

Hank Silver, Lead Carpenter, 2021 Full-Scale Truss Workshop

Hank Silver has a broad range of carpentry experience, but traditional carpentry and timber frame joinery is his passion. Hank has worked on a wide variety of timber frame projects, has built and raised timber frames across New England, and is proficient at timber frame design as well. As a member of the organization Carpenters Without Borders he has been lucky enough to travel the world as part of an international crew, taking part in uniquely rewarding projects, such as reconstructing a 12th-century castle bridge in Normandy using only period tools. Hank co-led the group’s 2019 project to build a hand-hewn workshop for Mortise & Tenon Magazine - their first project in North America. He features prominently in the documentary film that resulted—Another Work is Possible. Hank is an active member of the Timber Framers Guild, has authored several articles for the guild journal, Timberframing, and has taught timber framing at Yestermorrow (VT) and The Heartwood School (MA).
ironwoodtimberworks.com

Jordan Finch, Lead Carpenter, 2021 Full-Scale Truss Workshop

Finch Woodworks is owned and operated by Jordan Finch.  After graduating from the Great Books Program at St. John’s College in 2000, he began a two year apprenticeship with Vicco Von Voss, a German-trained furniture maker in Chestertown, MD, building custom, commission-based pieces of contemporary design with traditional wood joinery out of fine hardwoods. Jordan continued to timber framing throughs workshops held by the Timber Framers Guild, constructing two small shop buildings and beginning his own home, deepening an appreciation for the process of building from a tree to the finished form. Jordan was Professor of Timber Framing at the American College of the Building Arts in Charleston, SC, 2012-15. Jordan works and lives with his wife and four kids in Virginia.
finchwoodworks.com

Project Partners/

Cathy Frankel, Vice President for Exhibitions and Collections, National Building Museum, Member of Handshouse Board of Advisors

Cathy Crane Frankel, leads the curatorial team to develop the Museum’s exhibition program and coordinates the production of the Museum’s exhibitions. She directed the acclaimed series of ambitious exhibitions focusing on sustainability and the built environment, and history-based exhibitions such as House of Cars: Innovation and the Parking Garage. As a member of the Museum’s senior staff, Ms. Frankel participates in the Museum’s long-term and strategic planning. Ms. Frankel has a master’s from the George Washington University and a bachelor’s from Dickinson College.

Dr. François Calame,  Ethnologist at the Ministry of Culture, Founder, Charpentiers sans Frontières

François Calame holds a master's degree in science and techniques for the conservation of cultural heritage and a doctorate in ethnology defended at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences sociales. In 1978, he was an apprentice carpenter with the Association Ouvrière des Compagnons du Devoir du Tour de France. Since that time, he has been developing a study that is both theoretical and practical on the transmission of know-how in the field of traditional architecture, crafts and industrial production.

A design engineer at the French Ministry of Culture, since 1992 he has been setting up an international network of specialists and practitioners of wood carpentry. This network, entitled "Carpenters without borders", brings together every year, in France or elsewhere, tradespeople from around fifteen countries around the manual practices of the art of carpentry. A website of the Ministry of Culture and Communication reports on some of these experiences (Charpentiers d'Europe et d'ailleurs, pre-industrial know-how in wood http://www.charpentiers.culture. en ).

In 2009, he brought the inscription on the representative list of the intangible cultural heritage of UNESCO of the French art of structural drawing.

Michael Burrey, Faculty, Preservation Carpentry Program, North Bennet Street School, Member of Handshouse Board of Advisors

Michael is the second-year instructor for the Preservation Carpentry Program. He specializes in timber-frame joinery and has researched and re-created 17th century methods of roof thatching, interior walls, and paint finishes. After studying Early American and Colonial Life as an undergraduate, he worked as an Interpretive Artisan at Plimoth Plantation researching and interpreting colonial building techniques. In 1999, Michael established MLB Restorations in order to work on the restoration and preservation of historic buildings and to encourage the design of new structures in harmony with traditional and sustainable building methods. His carpentry skill has been recognized by his selection in 2014 by the Historic Royal Palaces to carry out the hewing and squaring of new timbers to be used in the repair of the Tower of London.

Moss Rudley, Superintendent, Historic Preservation Training Center, National Park Service

Born in Greenbrier County, West Virginia, I was raised on a working cattle farm that contained numerous historic vernacular structures. I became exposed to the trades and historic preservation field through the care of hand-hewn log structures of Scots-Irish and German notching and construction techniques. I worked with my father to performing historical surveys in southern West Virginia for the State Historic Preservation Office. I attended Shepherd College in Shepherdstown, West Virginia and received Degree’s in Business Administration, Civil Engineering and Culinary Arts.
I then came to the National Park Service’s Historic Preservation Training Center (HPTC) in 2000 as a tradesperson, I entered into the Exhibits Specialist Training Program in 2004 assigned to the Masonry Division. I received my certificate in 2007 and was promoted to a staff Exhibits Specialist with the Masonry division. In 2011, I was selected as Supervisory Exhibit Specialist of the Masonry Division. On June 15, 2015, I was selected as the Deputy Superintendent and in 2017 was promoted to Superintendent, the fourth Superintendent of the HPTC.
I currently reside with my wife Gale and our two daughters, Opal age 12 and Zion age eight, and our one year old son Nash in Hedgesville WV. I continue to support historic preservation through outreach with community preservation organizations, local universities, and training sessions.

Winnie Smith, Associate Director, Willson Center for Humanities and Arts, University of Georgia, Athens, GA

Winnie Smith has worked at UGA since 2007, previously at the College of Education and the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. She is a proud Double Dawg, receiving both her BFA in jewelry and metalsmithing and her MAED in art/museum education from UGA. Winnie works closely with the Willson Center Board of Friends, provides support to grant funded faculty and students, and specializes in office administration, grants management, and event planning. Winnie’s favorite place in Athens is the Georgia Museum of Art, and she enjoys spending time at Watson Mill State

Martijn Van Wagtendonk, Area Chair of Sculpture, Lamar Dodd School of Art, University of Georgia, Athens, GA

After receiving his BFA in the Netherlands, Martijn van Wagtendonk came to the US to round off his education with an MFA in sculpture from Ohio State University and one in Film & Video from California Institute of the Arts. He now teaches sculpture and such at the University of Georgia’s Lamar Dodd School of Art. His art is kinetic and consequently full of sound. The process of making is what shapes budding thoughts and gives the work meaning, resulting in things like these: https://vimeo.com/martijnvanwagtendonk . Martijn’s interest in Handshouse projects steps from a passion for sharing/teaching/learning how understanding of the creative practice makes concepts evident.