Features
The 25 – Jan Lewandoski
Over the course of four decades, Jan Lewandoski has been a leader in the movement to restore and reconstruct historic timber frame structures using traditional construction methods, tools, and materials.
Through his company, Restoration and Traditional Building, he has rebuilt scores of bridges, churches, barns, and public buildings all across New England, as well as New York State, New Jersey, North Carolina, and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec.
He sees each project as an opportunity to “understand the original builder’s intent and preserve a lot of architecture and its structure from being bypassed by modern materials and methods.”
It was his love of the landscape and small towns of upstate New York and New England that led him to explore historic construction methods.
“When I bought a house for myself, or was asked to work on one, I found that I could find the solutions to most problems by looking in existing historic barns, houses, or churches,” he says. “I decided I needed to know a lot about them and that touching them was important. From there, I began to offer to repair or restore structures that most builders wouldn’t touch.”
