Description

This richly photographed volume is a celebration of what is, at once, an ancient symbol of shelter and harvest and, as well, a quintessential American architectural form. Widely revered yet steadily vanishing from our cultural landscape, the barn is an expression of pastoral romance, honest effort, painstaking craftsmanship, and tradition – a tradition that we are in danger of losing. Barn: Rescue and Adaptation, Revised and Expanded is a magnificent, abundantly illustrated volume that examines the remarkable story a true architectural icons. In this authoritative exploration, the authors, both practitioners of barn restoration and historic-barn moving, offer a tribute and guide to the many extant forms of American barn, following the evolution of the form from this country’s earliest days, and, as well, tell the story of their efforts to restore, adapt, and repurpose these simple, soulful structures. Barns embody the ethos of another age and harken back to those days when the world moved more slowly, an ethos still to be found in these beautiful buildings – yet, due to the ravages of time, weather, and neglect these essential American edifices are threatened, as never before.
This volume reminds us that barns are as much a part of us as our love of apple pie, and as such should be cherished for their artistry and cultural significance. This revised and expanded edition of Barn coincides with the premier of the PBS series Barnstruck and describes the process of barn preservation through relocation, focusing on the work of The New Jersey Barn Company, whose dedicated efforts over 35 years have saved more than 150 structures.