Learn what makes Woodhouse timber frame structures irresistible to business owners and customers.

 

Many people spend years dreaming of building their own timber frame house. It’s not surprising. These special structures carry a timeless, undeniable beauty that makes them especially desirable. So when they take the form of a commercial building – especially as timber frame restaurants, breweries, coffee houses, distilleries, and even hotels – they serve up a delicious, captivating ambiance that’s paired with high performance. After all, the right ambiance can transform a casual drink and meal into a memorable experience–the kind that people talk about again and again and eagerly return to for more.

 

Customizing a Commercial Space

Instead of load-bearing walls, it’s the posts, beams, braces, and trusses that carry the weight of a timber frame structure. Because the timbers carry the load and not the walls, a timber frame’s interior is free to be imagined into countless configurations. For non-residential timber frame structures, this level of customization maximizes performance, aesthetics, and efficiency.

A proprietor may want a mix of small rooms and lofts for a cozy feeling or a larger, voluminous great room to evoke a mountain lodge atmosphere. In a Woodhouse timber frame, restaurants walls can be adjusted to accommodate bussing stations or organized to optimize a server’s footsteps to and from the kitchen. The restaurant’s design is endlessly flexible to optimize service and setting.

Take for example Woodhouse client Firewater Restaurant and Bar, which organized the seating and windows to connect patrons to views of a breathtaking lake. The large timbers, the distinct craftsmanship, and inviting outdoor dining decks enhance the scenic waterscape and surrounding forests.

Timber frame breweries, distilleries, wineries, coffee houses, and cideries can establish spacious interiors anchored with an amazing statement bar that invites people to linger, eat, and drink.  Check out Woodhouse’s Three Beards Brewery project in Sunbury, Pennsylvania, for a spectacular example of this type of design.

This bright and airy space is balanced with the natural warmth and organic textures of oversized timbers. It’s the kind of place that makes you want to wrap your hands around a craft beer and savor the good times with friends. These timber frame breweries can also be modified with lofts or do double-duty as destination timber frame event centers for additional revenue.

Performance efficiency shows up in other ways in commercial wood buildings. Unlike conventional commercial structures or log buildings, a post and beam winery, restaurant, hotel, and the like are constructed with our high-performance structural insulated panels (SIPs), whose thermal envelopes and protection against extreme weather and fire are the best in the industry. For you, that translates to extra peace of mind knowing your business has an additional safeguard against high winds, snow loads, storms, and fire.

There’s a recurring cash savings, too. Food and beverage businesses often come with high energy costs. A SIP building system for timber frame and post and beam commercial structures delivers a superior thermal envelope that naturally regulates interior temperatures keeping your monthly energy expenses low and guests comfy.  

 

Memorable Aesthetics

Timber frames are a traditional fit for woodsy mountain lodges and cabin retreats. But in the right hands, your timber frame commercial structure can take on any aesthetic and design you wish — coastal, modern, farm, barn, craftsman, or even combined styles.

For example, Woodhouse client Caywood Vineyards of Lodi, New York, is in the Finger Lakes region. For this timber frame vineyard, we combined graceful, custom trusswork with the region’s traditional barn design.

Because we can customize your timber frame, even when starting with a pre-designed floor plan, you get the exact look and feel that you desire. This capability also makes a perfect-sized timber frame for hobbyists who are hand-crafting specialty beer or harvesting a few acres of grapes or apples for wine or cider. Our timber frame commercial structures can combine tasting room, workshop, storage, and office for a space that’s just the right size. We can even do a timber frame barndominium that incorporates living quarters so you can have it all.

 

Your Timber Frame Business Plan

As you dream of your timber frame winery, brewery, coffeehouse, cidery, distillery, or restaurant, be sure to see what Woodhouse can do for you. Explore our gallery of commercial timber frame structures and plans. No matter where you live in the U.S., our network of timber frame experts is ready to help you, so reach out to your Woodhouse Regional Project Manager. With so much beauty, aesthetic diversity, and practical benefits, your Woodhouse food or beverage timber frame structure will have you saying “Cheers!”.