The Breathing Cloud

Breathing Cloud in Snow

A rare snowfall at the Oregon coast clarifies the shape of the Breathing Cloud.

Timber for Cloud Project

Connecting Beams

Craig Baumhofer and Randall connect the dots…

Timber for Cloud

The 40' x 48" Douglas fir log was solid throughout. Waylon Porter provided the muscle to remove the log with his Kubota mini-excavator. He said it tested the maximum capacity of the machine as dragging was all it could do with this 1/4 of the log.

Great Results

Using Bernard Williams' WoodMizor mill we milled the rough pieces into dimensional beams to fit our building specifications.

Mill Management

Taking A Look

Placing Truss

Truss in Black

Breathing Cloud, Truss Detail

Curve Sighting

Eyeing the Curve

Wood Roof for Cloud

Breathing Cloud from the West

The roof is made simply of 2" x 12" Douglas fir boards, 14' long. Designer and Master Carpenter Craig Baumhofer helped to design the curved beams and Van Dreel truss, providing a 21" curve running the length of the roof.

Behind the Collection

The Breathing Cloud is the result of a discovery in 1999 of a 40’ Douglas fir log that appeared after a two-day, 16” rainstorm on the west end of our farm. The 267-year-old timber was buried for 100 years or so most likely functioning as a dam for the Swiss dairy farmers who settled this valley beginning in the second decade of the twentieth century. It landed 150 feet behind a farm member’s home and he came to get us the morning he discovered it. It was hard as a rock and looked like a dinosaur it was so large and primal.

Fourteen years later I took on the project of creating something from the wood. Alongside my friend and architect Craig Baumhaufer, I designed and built the building in the fall of 2014. We built it on a 21” radius as Craig insisted. It is a brilliant little building and structurally a fortress.

The roof form is drawn from the timbered walkways at Salishan Lodge just 25 miles south of us. The simple post, beam and truss structure operates on the curve so that when the roof was applied we just attached the 14-inch 2 x 12’s to the structure without requiring a cut.

Although cars park beneath it, I consider it sculpture more than anything.

Behind The Breathing Cloud

Description here.