Geobarns - specializing in elegant and artistic barns using a modified post and beam structure and timber frame

The Pippin Hill Farm & Vineyards
North Garden, VA

Click on any photo on the right to view a slideshow

George Abetti
Owner – GeoBarns LLC
King’s Highway White River Junction, VT

Re: Pippin Hill Farm & Vineyards GeoBarns
The Design and Construction Process

Dear George:

We began our discussions just under two years ago, with our winery business plan followed by the very preliminary schematic sketches that you did by pencil as concept drawings for our Pippin Hill project. From that start it has been an incredible journey to design, engineer and refine our buildings, with all of its interrelated spaces and functions. The entire 15,000 sq feet of Pippin Hill Farm has your imprint.

It was an incredibly complex process with the multiple trades, a re-engineering of the main tasting room structure to comply with more stringent codes, expansion of the building to accommodate the bridal loft, the modifications to the cupolas and structure to accommodate the geothermal system.

The construction timing still gets raised eyebrows, as the mere seven-month construction schedule was intense, but in the final result amazing and exceeding expectations.

Through it all you were an invaluable and trusted contractor, and most importantly a valued friend.

Simply put, we would not have been able to accomplish the development of Pippin Hill without you and your indefatigable focus and skills.

We wholeheartedly endorse both the GeoBarns system and your ability to execute it.

With our very best wishes,

Dean & Lynn Easton Andrews
Proprietors Pippin Hill Farm & Vineyards
North Garden, VA
www.PippinHillFarm.com

The Pippin Hill Farm Winery and Vineyards project was breathtaking in its scope, intensity, beauty and setting at Bundoran Farm in Albemarle County. For Geobarns—this build was the equivalent of a normal year of contracts, square footage and crew days—albeit compressed into half that interval.

While there is no way these few paragraphs can encapsulate the agony and ecstasy of the emotions throughout this last winter’s marathon—the pictures do capture it wonderfully well—and hopefully you will see the passionate hearts and enthusiastic efforts as you pore over the photos and see the progress from early November’s muddy ditches to the hanging of the half ton wooden doors at the end of May to welcome the first bride and groom to what is arguably the finest event venue on the east coast.

I would be remiss were I not to acknowledge a number of people whose love and perseverance and willingness to pursue this dream as a team—which more than any single factor brought Pippin Hill into being. Dean and Lynn Andrews—our warm, generous and visionary clients—never stopped believing we could pull this off in spite of a late start, looming deadlines, difficult weather and hundreds of tasks to manage. Their love for each other, this project, and every one of us was an inspiration and a gift that never stopped encouraging us along the way.

I am also grateful to the many trades and designers who planned and executed this magnificent project—with appreciation for their expertise, long hours and patient tutelage as we sought our way through the labyrinthine codes, structural stresses, interior finishes, landscaping, MEP, IT, geothermal, rainwater catchment, foundation work and construction of the complex shells. There were days there were over 30 different trades on site….all of whom played a critical part in what we often described as a chaotic but choreographed dance that somehow ebbed and flowed and created a work of art that none of individually could have even attempted. While there are too many to mention—I do want to specifically thank Bushman/Dreyfus architects for taking Dean’s and my initial drawings to a full blown functional building, Nolan-Frisa for our engineering, Artisan Construction who helped manage the project as our GC, Williams excavation for their unceasing patience with the weather and terrain, Advance Concrete for a superb job on the foundation, and Matthew Crane /Arterra Design and his crews who were the core of our collective construction team.

I want to close with thanking my wife Susanne for her constant encouragement and support—without which living away from home for six months in a small camper on site through the winter would have been unbearable—and with which this became a gift of both our hearts to God and our clients whom we now count among our dearest friends. We are indeed blessed to have been a part of such an undertaking—with Pippin Hill becoming a testimony to the love and passion of many disparate people loving each other and persevering to fulfill a common dream.