Program Calendar

Hank Silver spent close to two years working on the restoration of the medieval roof framing of Notre Dame de Paris. Born in New York City, Silver honed his craft in Vermont, before opening his own workshop in western Massachusetts. Since 2018, Silver has been a member of the France-based volunteer crew, Charpentiers sans frontières (Carpenters Without Borders) whose mission is the restoration of world carpentry heritage and the transmission of the skills and techniques to future generations of craftspeople. An active member of the Timber Framers Guild (USA), he has authored several articles for the guild’s journal, Timber Framing, on a variety of subjects, including an historic survey of an unusual curved wooden bridge in Massachusetts. He has taught traditional American timber framing at Yestermorrow (VT) and The Heartwood School (NH), as well as courses on the French layout technique known as piquage (French scribing) in the US and Estonia. In 2022, At the invitation of Ateliers Desmonts (Normandy, France), he was asked to join the carpentry team as a Lead Carpenter on the restoration of the medieval timber frame of the nave of Notre-Dame de Paris. After completion of the framing of the nave, he continued to work on-site at Notre-Dame de Paris for the installation of the oak roof sheathing, and will be returning in 2025 to assist in the next phase of work on the south belltower.

Presented by Hank Silver, timber frame carpenter