Paul Knierim (left) and Andrey Polgun, recent graduates of the woodworking school, discuss the details of  finishing a custom-built workstation.

A school that teaches architectural woodworking as avocation and vocation. 
By Eric Goldscheider 

Steve Squire takes pains to draw distinctions between what architectural woodworkers do and what people in similar trades, such as carpentry and custom furniture making, do. Squire, and his business partner, Faith Harrison, run the New England School of Architectural Woodworking, or NESAW, in an old Easthampton mill building. They founded the school in 1995 and now graduate 20 students a year from their intensive nine-month program. 

Architectural woodworkers (you could also call them cabinetmakers) know how to read blueprints and specialize in customized built-in units ranging from a home entertainment center to a retail display area in a shop to the judge's bench in a court room. ``We dress America's buildings while furniture makers provide the jewelry,'' says Squire, 51. That definition gives proper deference to fine furniture makers, whom Squire holds in high regard, while at the same time circumscribes their role. 

Certainly, the niche NESAW's trainees fill overlaps other crafts, but the skills they acquire at the school - the ability to take an idea, produce shop drawings, and then turn them into a finished product - are a distinction the schools' directors want to accentuate. 

A slightly cheekier metaphor, which Squire attributes to Toshio Odate, a traditional Japanese woodworker and sculptor, who lives in Woodbury, Connecticut, goes something like this: A cabinetmaker is a craftsperson who takes something society needs and makes it to the best of his or her ability. A fine furniture maker is an artist who makes something society doesn't need and tries to convince it that it does. 

Harrison, 51, who took on the administrative tasks at NESAW after working as a hand marbleizer of decorative paper, favors theater analogies. ``Carpenters build the stage,'' she says, ``whereas cabinetmakers build the scenery.'' 

So what might this scenery look like? 

Last year, two students built a counter for a breathalyzer for the Easthampton Police Department, working out such details as how a suspect could be restrained. 

Another student built a computer workstation incorporating some daring design elements for a beginner to his craft. For example, he put a pocket door on the compartment that holds the CPU. When the computer is in use, the door can be slid into the cabinet, thus facilitating air circulation. 

Andrey Polgun, who built the unit using red birch, says many of his ideas come from woodworking magazines and Home & Garden Television. An émigré from Belarus, Polgun spent the last six years in the United States electronic equipment. Going back to school, however, was challenging. He kept a Russian/English dictionary by his bench through the entire course. 

Another member of last year's class, Paul Knierim of Simsbury, Connecticut, practices law and serves as a probate judge. But the former Connecticut state representative from Connecticut plans to launch a parallel career as a cabinetmaker. ``I like working with my hands,'' he says. ``It adds a nice balance.'' While Knierim likes law, he finds satisfaction in having something tangible to show for his labors. And he has found using the different parts of his brain for the different parts of his life has some unexpected advantages. ``I can be in court, and a solution to a woodworking problem comes to me,'' says Knierim, 36. 

Randy Hitz, having spent 17 years as a bursar and hotel manager on cruise ships came to NESAW to train for work more suited to his new life as a married man. He and his wife plan to settle in his native Georgia where he already has a job in a woodworking shop, but his dream is to someday own his own shop in Colorado. 

Squire says the school attracts young people as well as midlife career-changers and retirees wanting simply to hone skills to make their hobbies more satisfying. 

The school’s academic day is 4 1/2 hours, and the students have to punch a clock. Attendance and punctuality are important influences on the type of recommendation Squire gives a student at the end of the course. 

Tuition is $7,750 and students coming from out of the area usually find an apartment nearby. The course is divided into morning or afternoon sessions with 10 students in each. 

In addition to the nine-month course, NESAW offers evening classes ranging from beginning woodworking, which costs $320 including a materials fee and runs three hours a week for 10 weeks, to a $95 weekend class on building a Shaker oval box. Other classes include woodcarving and intensive 8-week summer program. 

It takes most people about a decade to master cabinetmaking, according to Squire, who started out in the early 1970s by building waterbeds. But the NESAW course gives them a running start. ``You can't take a 10-year learning curve and squeeze it into nine months,'' he says. ``What we do is take some of the pain out of the beginning.'' 
 

RESOURCES 

The New England School of Architectural Woodworking is at 1 Cottage Street in Easthampton. For information on course offerings, call the school at 413-527-6103 or visit the Web site at www. nesaw.com 

Home Depot aids woodworkers

Hampshire Gazette, Oct. 15,1999

Friday, March 24, 2000 --  (EASTHAMPTON) - Two students of the New England School of Architectural Woodworking will receive scholarships from The Home Depot to buy some things they'll need in their future careers - tools. 

Ry Bohrnstedt, 23, of West Virginia, and Gary Wright, 50, of Feeding Hills, will both receive $1,500 to use toward the purchase of tools in the first year of The Home Depot's "Tools of the Trade" program. 

Home Depot has also given tools to the school. 

The New England School of Architectural Woodworking provides hands-on training to students aspiring to become architectural woodworkers. Practitioners in this field build custom cabinetry, work centers, paneling for residences and corporate offices and virtually any interior or exterior details drafted by an architect, according to Faith Harrison, who co-owns the school with Steve Squire. 

Twenty-five students attend the school, at One Cottage Street, 15 during the day and 10 at night. 

The architectural woodworking school was one of only four schools selected from more than 600 in North America to participate in the "Tools of the Trade" program. 

"We selected NESAW for our program because we wanted to honor them for providing such a unique educational program," said Mike Tracy, senior vice president of proprietary brands for Home Depot in Atlanta, Ga. "This school is one of a few where students learn architectural woodworking, a skill that is in strong demand across North America, due to our booming residential and commercial construction markets." 

After being recognized by The Home Depot, the school in turn selected Bohrnstedt and Wright as its two scholarship recipients, based on a point system in which they were rated in categories such as professional potential, individual knowledge, creative initiative and organization. 

Bohrnstedt says he tried college for a few years but decided it wasn't for him. He found New England School of Architectural Woodworking on the Internet and enrolled in the 37-week program. He is currently planning a trip to California for three job interviews the school has arranged for him. He said he wants to live near Hollywood with his girlfriend, who is an aspiring actress. 

Wright plans to open his own business and already has a name for it - "Woodwright's." After working in the medical field as a lab technician and administrator for nearly 30 years, Wright was laid off in September. 

"I decided it was time to do something that I really enjoyed," he said. "I've always wanted to play a musical instrument or sculpt and figured this was a creative outlet and a career, too." 

Wright has found a particular niche creating Shaker-style furniture and will return to the school after graduation to teach one class in Shaker boxes. 

Wright and Bohrnstedt were given a list from which to choose their tools. The list contained a broad range of power tools, hand tools and work tables, according to Simley, John Simley from Home Depot headquarters in Atlanta 

When they receive their tools, it will help set them up for their professional careers, Harrison said. 

The school received a donation of $4,000 in "Ridgid" tools, The Home Depot's new line, to be used for classes. 

Their choices included table saws, miter saws, a scroll saw, a jointer-planer, a drill press, a band saw, a sander, shop vacs and dust collectors. 

The tools were delivered to the school in October. 

"We already had some of the saws, but now that we have more; students don't have to wait to get on a machine," Harrison said. "And our shop is so much cleaner now that we have the dust collector." 

Carving a new niche

Midcareer students return to the shop to learn architectural woodworking

By Christopher Cox

EASTHAMPTON - Blame it on the booming economy, midlife crises, the mystical attraction of power tools, even Norm Abram. Woodworking is all the rage.

"It's not just your home handyman with a sawhorse and a rip saw," said Stan Tkaczuk, 56, of Granville, consulting the plans for a Shaker-style hutch, one of his student projects at the New England School of Architectural Woodworking.

Located in an old elastic-thread factory that now holds more than 75 artisans, the 6-year-old school is training Tkaczuk, a former technical illustrator, and other students in the specialized, long-term skills required for architectural woodworking.

Stephen Squire, who co-owns NESAW with Faith Harrison, said those in the field "work from the Sheetrock out."

The varied jobs can include building kitchen cabinets in a residential home, creating a hospital nurse's station, installing fancy paneling at a new restaurant or crafting shelving units for a retail store.

"We clothe America's buildings," Squire said.

According to Squire, demand for skilled cabinetmakers exceeds the number of students (currently 20, in two sessions) who attend the nine-month NESAW course.

Call it the cutting edge. NESAW's "job-oriented" course prepares people for the woodworking industry, said Harrison. Its graduates have gone to work in mills, wood shops and one-of-a-kind furniture studios.

The students, who have ranged in age from 18 to 65, come to this Pioneer Valley school from all over the country. Some have left technical fields in search of more hands-on work. Others have decided college isn't for them.

Still others, such as Tkaczuk - downsized from toymaker Milton Bradley - are retraining under funding from the Job Training Partnership Act. Tuition, which includes materials fee, a drafting board and kit and books, is $7,400.

Given the demand for qualified woodworkers in this robust economy, Tkaczuk said, "Employment is not going to be a problem."

During their first few months, students are introduced to cabinetmaking, learn how to make shop drawings, to read parts and cutting lists and to operate planers, joiners, routers and table saws. And, of course, the mysteries of such joinery techniques as dadoing, grooving and mitering. Then everyone tackles the same first assignment, a home cabinet.

"Basically a cabinet is a box," said Harrison. "We're teaching our students how you glamorize it."

Students then move onto more complicated projects, often for local municipalities and businesses. Past projects include a judge's bench and witness and bailiff boxes for a juvenile court, a computer workstation for a mayor's office and a circulation desk for a public library.

That kind of variety is the craft's attraction, according to Harrison: "Everything is usually a custom job. There's always a new dilemma, a new challenge."

During a recent visit Jean Dulari Holt, 20, of Burlington, Vt., carefully sanded the poplar frames of eight bulletin boards she's creating for Shutesbury Town Hall.

"I want to make them perfect, even though they're going to get painted," Holt said.

Aimee Fox, 27, of Waymart, Pa., mulled her sketch of a solid-mahogany display case to be installed at the same building.

"I want to make sure it doesn't fall apart," Fox said.

Tom Kilminster, 21, of Rochester, N.Y., and Ry Bohrnstedt, 22, of Lewisburg, W. Va., collaborated on a large birch-and-plywood computer desk for a local hardware store.

NESAW's students work from concept to completion, talking with clients, making a shop drawing and cutting list, milling and assembling pieces and then delivering the finished job to their customer.

"We're teaching people to make a living in woodworking, rather than using it as an art form," Squire said.

To that end, NESAW students also are introduced to the safe, professional behavior it takes to work in a busy shop. They must punch in and out on a time clock and there are strict rules on attendance and break time.

"No matter how nice the project is you still have to do the work," Squire said.

Home Depot Aids Trade School

Hampshire Gazette, Oct. 15,1999

Friday, October 15, 1999 --  (EASTHAMPTON) - An Easthampton woodworking school is the surprise beneficiary of thousands of dollars worth of shop equipment from Home Depot. 

The New England School of Architectural Woodworking, along with programs in Seattle and Toronto, has been named a beneficiary of the national retailer's "Tools of the Trade" program. 

The 5-year-old school, where students learn fine custom cabinetry, will receive some $4,000 worth of new woodworking equipment plus $3,000 worth of tools to give to its best students. 

For Home Depot, there's a three-fold purpose behind the promotion: to spread word about its products, encourage training programs in carpentry fields and possibly recruit talented staff to the company. 

A representative from Home Depot is expected at the school to talk about employment opportunities with the retailing giant. 

Faith Harrison, who co-owns the school with head instructor Steve Squire, said the offer came out of the blue. Apparently, people at Home Depot found the school's home page on the World Wide Web. 

She said she and Squire were flabbergasted by the "extraordinary generosity" of the gift, which will enable the school to buy equipment it doesn't have and replace and supplement other kinds of tools. 

The Atlanta-based Home Depot, in collaboration with the Emerson Tool Co., has already invited the school to select roughly $4,000 worth of RIDGID-brand power tools (made by Emerson, and carried by Home Depot) from a long list. They chose everything from a drill press to a lathe. 

Home Depot and Emerson also are offering to outfit up to three students at the school with about $3,000 worth of shop equipment. 

Harrison said the company may or may not succeed in luring students to work part time for the company while they are attending the school. Home Depot has a store in West Springfield. 

Almost all students already work half-time, she said. They go to school for half of each day and work the other half to earn enough money to pay the school's $7,100 tuition charge for the 35-week program and the $300 charge for materials. Six of the 10 students now enrolled already have part-time jobs in the woodworking field - such is the heavy demand for workers by area woodworking firms, Harrison said. 

"I get phone calls every other day from employers all over the country" seeking graduates, said Harrison, who is the school's business manager. 

The deal with Home Depot is not the school's first affiliation with a major corporation - and Harrison hopes it is not the last. 

About 10 months ago the school signed on with Dupont Corp. to train and certify people to become fabricators of cabinets in which Dupont's Corian brand of solid surface products are used. 

The school hired an instructor to give the training. It has trained about 75 people in intensive weekend workshops so far. 

While the curriculum at the school emphasizes the "thought process" of designing jobs and the basic fundamentals of hand work using traditional tools, Squire and Harrison would like eventually to add a computer-aided-design program. 

They hope eventually to get into doing more professional training for workers in the field. Finding business partners is part of their strategy, they say. 
 
 

New England School Focuses on Architectural Woodworking
CWB Custom Woodworking Business
MAY 1999

THE NEW ENGLAND SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURAL WOODWORKING OFFERS A NINE-MONTH COURSE TO TRAIN WORKERS FOR THIS SEGMENT OF THE INDUSTRY
 

In an historic brick mill building in Easthampton, MA, the New England School of Architectural Woodworking is dedicated to training craftspeople in the architectural millwork segment of woodworking.

“While the artisans who work for millwork companies must be highly skilled, extremely knowledgeable and versatile cabinetmakers, historically there has been very little effort to train people for this branch of woodworking for a long time, “ says school co-owner Faith Harrison. “The master and apprentice style of training is largely a thing of the past. Also, woodworking has become much more complex and technical. We are all bombarded with new materials, adhesives, finishes and methods on an almost daily basis. As a result, architectural millwork companies are finding it increasingly difficult to find individuals with the requisite skills, training and knowledge.”

Harrison says she and co-owner Steve Squire have developed an intensive nine-month course to provide students with a firm understanding of the architectural millwork industry as a whole and to give hands-on production experience. Students are taught to use all hand and power tools, as well as stationary woodworking machinery safely and efficiently in a woodworking environment similar to that of many architectural woodworking businesses, Harrison says. They work with dimensional hardwoods, plywood and various kinds of particle board, veneers and plastic laminate.

Course topics include: measuring; layout; joinery; machining; construction of jigs, fixtures and templates; assembly techniques; reading and drafting shop drawings; finishing and installation. The course is structured so that skills and knowledge are applied and used repeatedly on a variety of projects.

Great emphasis is placed on providing students with first-hand experience in producing actual architectural millwork projects to develop their skills, the school actively solicits and builds custom millwork projects for local non-profit organisations.

The projects are turned over to students at the earliest stage possible and are handled as if they were formally awarded architectural millwork contracts. Under an instructor’s supervision, students take site measurements, produce and submit shop drawings and estimate materials. When the job is awarded, students generate their own cut lists and do all the labor necessary to fabricate and finish the required items as well as install them.

The school’s students range in age from 18 to 60, come from all over the country and enter the school with varying levels of woodworking skills and experience. Some are workers who have been laid off and are being retrained to reenter the job market.

The school offers placement assistance upon completion of the course, but it is very common for students to have already secured placement (with the school’s assistance) before completion of their term, Harrison says. In fact, requests for graduates come from prospective employers all over the United States and outnumber total enrollment by about five to one, she adds. Graduates have taken positions from architectural millwork companies, store fixture manufacturers, general contractors, custom furniture builders, the aviation industry and yacht builders.

Classes meet Monday through Friday. Each class day is five hours long, and it is treated very much like a working day in a cabinet shop. Two courses are offered per year, Harrison says, and enrollment is often filled six months before the classes begin. Enrollment in each class is limited to about 10 people to ensure that there is sufficient time for each student to get individual attention and guidance.

“Developing and maintaining good work habits is very highly stressed, as is teamwork and, perhaps most importantly, safety,” Harrison says. “Students generally work on projects in pairs, both for safety and to allow them to learn from and double check each other. Student projects have included judge’s benches, reception desks, computer stations and cabinetry for schools and churches.”

The instructors are Steven Squire and Kenneth Speed, who between them have 50 years of experience in the architectural millwork industry. Speed also has completed a Corian fabricator instructor’s course in West Chester, PA. The school recently became a Corian Fabricator Certification center and will offer certification courses on weekends for firms in the New England area.

In addition to the full-time courses, the school offers evening classes in beginning and intermediate woodworking, woodworking for women, wood carving, and furniture repair and refinishing. The school welcomes inquiries from prospective employers or students. The address is One Cottage St., Easthampton, MA 01027; phone or fax (413)527-6103. It also has a web site, www.nesaw.com, and e-mail at nesaw@nesaw.com.

Anyone interested in the Corian Certification Program should contact Michael Delaney at Kilstom Distributors, 12 Cascade Blvd.,Orange, CT 06477; phone (203-799-3339.

Tooling Up New Woodworkers
Hampshire Gazette March 25, 1998
By Jocelyn Selim  

Business partners Faith Harrison and Steve Squire took over The New England School of Architectural Woodworking several years ago. An open house is planned at One Cottage St. in early April.

If running a successful business depends on identifying a demand and providing a supply, The New England School of Architectural Woodworking may offer a textbook example. 

"The market is huge," says Steve Squire, the One Cottage St. school's co-owner. "If you're a skilled cabinet maker you'll never starve But it's difficult to break into because it's a very skill intense type of job." 

But the number of places where students can train in the field are small, its co-owners say. 

The school added another session in February, which doubles its number of students to 17. It has also expanded its selection of night classes available for those who are looking to improve their skills in such areas as relief wood carving and furniture refinishing. 

For a $7,100 tuition fee and 35 weeks of intensive hands-on training in woodworking skills, machinery, and finishing techniques, students receive a certificate that helps make them candidates for woodworking jobs nationwide, according to Squire and his partner, Faith Harrison, who handles the business and marketing aspects of the school. There is a $300 materials fee as well as the tuition. 

Harrison says that for every graduate, there are at least five job openings. "I receive calls from companies complaining about the lack of trained workers," Harrison said. 

Squire attributes the demand to a steadily growing field, coupled with lack of training programs for potential employees. Apprenticeship, the traditional means of acquiring skills in the field, has been all but phased out, Squire said, while vocational schools focus programs more on carpentry and fine woodworking. 

To better acquaint people with its work, the school will hold an open house April 3, from 4 to 7 p.m., with shop tours and displays of student projects. 

Defining Trade
Architectural woodworking occupies the middle ground between carpentry and fine woodworking. Carpenters, Squire said, are "framers," while architectural woodworkers provide interiors and work mostly with fixed tools, panel saws, shapers, and planers and other large pieces of equipment that are too unwieldy for the highly mobile society of carpenters to bring on site. 

There is some overlap between the trades, Squire said. "Carpenters build structures, we make the things that go in them." 

Although often referred to as cabinetmakers, cabinets often providing the staple of their work, architectural woodworkers will likely also find themselves building store display cases, reception desks, computer stations, conference tables, custom doors, stairs, windows, moldings, paneling and virtually any interior fixture drafted by an architect. 

Fine woodworkers are the artists and aesthetes of the wood trade, Squire said, often spending months on a single piece of furniture. 

School's Beginnings
The New England School of Architectural Woodworking opened four years ago in a hastily constructed shop, when an entrepreneurial woodworker named Michael Coffey contracted with a local unemployment agency to teach the woodworking trade to people who were eligible for government retraining funds. 
 

Gary Booth, a student from Louisiana, uses fine sandpaper to smooth an intricate headboard at The New England School of Architectural Woodworking, One Cottage St. in Easthampton.

Coffey hired Harrison to handle the business office and Squire to design and implement a curriculum. When Coffey decided to retire in 1996, Squire and Harrison opted to take it over. 

Still, their decision to go into business was a difficult one. "It was hard to roll over from should we do this, to can we," said Squire, who lives in Stafford Springs, Conn. 

The two became business partners, borrowed $20,000 to purchase machinery and upgrade the shop, renamed the school, originally known as the One Cottage Street School of Fine Woodworking, and began advertising in newspapers and trade magazines to bring in new students. 

"The first few weeks were intense," said Harrison, who lives in Easthampton. "There was so much we needed to do." 

Squire and Harrison say they've finished repaying the loans they took out to establish the school under their ownership. They say they are receiving applications from all over the country. 

The school isn't turning a profit, as most of the tuition money is spent on improvements. Harrison and Squire draw salaries. 

Harrison is considering registering the institution as a non-profit organization 

"Right now, we're just focusing on expanding," said Harrison, "There's the stimulation that there's always something more we could do." 

"The business is taking off on its own," Squire said. "We just hope it doesn't grow beyond our ability to handle it." 

Both Harrison and Squire say that in their years of working together, they've had to learn to embrace compromise. Squire recalls a debate concerning the logo of the school. Squire wanted a Latin motto, which Harrison thought was out of sync with the hands-on, practical nature of the program. They decided to drop the Latin, but use a logo design that shows a classical architectural woodworking piece. 

Harrison said that she leaves the teaching and curriculum for the most part to Squire, who has worked in the field for 25 years. 

Teaching, Squire maintains, is a lot like making sausages. "Sometimes it ain't pretty what goes into it," he says. "If you come here with the expectation that this is glamour trade, you're going to end up complaining about it." 

Squire, nonetheless, has a reputation as a meticulous craftsman. "It's a great job to be able to express yourself in," he said. 

Squire runs a woodworking business outside of the school and sometimes works on pieces for that business at the Cottage Street shop. "It good for students to see their teacher practicing what he's preaching," Squire said. "It gives them a sense of legitimacy." 

The Cabinet Lesson
Squire teaches a class of 10 for five hours every day, starting at 7:30 a.m. The students begin their nine-month course by making what Squire calls a "home cabinet,' a roughly three-foot-high structure that looks like a cross between a kitchen cupboard and television cabinet. 

The cabinet project, which Squire grants isn't the most useful piece of furniture, is designed to teach students all the basics of architectural woodworking. It has doors with hinges, shaped edges, and a laminated top. 

After students complete this initial project, they move on to work on more complex pieces, either alone or in groups. These pieces, which have included reception desks for the Shutesbury library and one created for the office of Northampton Mayor Mary L. Ford, are usually commissioned by groups in the community, who are charged only for the cost of the materials plus a small overhead fee. 

"Most people who come here have some experience working with wood before beginning the program," Harrison said. 

The age of students varies from 18 to 60 years, and most are changing careers -middle-aged people who decided the time was right to switch job paths or who have been laid off. Many are receiving federal money for job retraining. 

Most students receive some help with tuition, federally or from relatives. Harrison noted that the Trade Readjustment Act, which provides money to people who have been laid off from companies as a result of foreign competition, typically pays the tuition in full for a number of students enrolled. Another group of the school's students are recent high school graduates. 

About six weeks before the end of a session, Harrison sends out announcements to woodworking employers, locally and nationally. Those who find jobs in small shops usually work as cabinetmakers while those who find jobs with larger businesses work as assemblers. 

According to Harrison, nine out of 10 students who wanted jobs in the industry were placed upon graduation last year. 

Return to TOP of Page

Learning a Woodworking Trade
Hampshire Gazette April 3, 1997
By Kim Winters  

But for now they gather at 7:30 a.m. each weekday for five hours of instruction and practice. 
 

David Snead, a student at The New England School of Architectural Woodworking in Easthampton, cuts wood that will be used for a computer desk destined for the office of Northampton Mayor Mary L. Ford. (Carol Lollis photo)

The intensive nine-month program in which they participate is offered by The New England School of Architectural Woodworking, and is structured to develop the novice or the experienced woodworker into a competent craftsperson. 

According to co-owner Steve Squire, the school provides critical job training in an under-supplied market -- trained woodworkers. "We get calls from (employers) all over the country," said Squire. 

Last year there were five job openings for every student at the school, according to Faith Harrison, also a co-owner. 
 

Sean McWilliams, left, reviews blueprints for a computer desk with Steve Squire, co-owner of The New England School of Architectural Woodworking in Easthampton. (Carol Lollis photo)

Why the need for skilled woodworkers? A good economy is one reason, said Squire. Another is that high schools have replaced woodworking classes with carpentry, which focuses on building construction techniques. 

Architectural woodworking, on the other hand, is the production and integration of all of the pieces that fit into a structure -- furniture and kitchen cabinets for homes, for example, and reception desks, computer stations and conference tables for offices. Store fixtures and displays as well as one-of-a-kind pieces are also produced by woodworkers. 

According to Squire, "an architect designs the pieces and we manufacture them to the specifications." 
 

Jeanette LaChance of Belchertown puts a coat of varnish on cubicles for the Peoples Institute in Northampton. She is learning the trade at The New England School of Architectural Woodworking in Easthampton. (Carol Lollis photo)

He said that the school provides a solid foundation in woodworking techniques. Tuition for the nine-month program is $6,500. "We are unique as far as offering a comprehensive program, from start to finish." 

Cabinets to Courtrooms
Squire, who commutes from Stafford Springs, Conn., is the sole teacher in the program. He calls on more than 25 years of experience in woodworking and project management in developing the curriculum and teaching students. 

Squire said that for the first three months, the program focuses on the basics -- learning about materials, safety, equipment, work habits, and developing shop drawings and cutting lists. Each student builds a cabinet along the way to learn the essential techniques and skills. 

In the second phase, every student on his own or in a team constructs a project for a local non-profit or community organization. According to Squire, these are start-to-finish projects that include designing the piece to integrate into the larger space, creating parts listings, building and finishing it. 

In last year's program, a judge's bench, and bailiff and witness boxes were built for Northampton Juvenile Court. 

This year's projects include computer stations for Northampton Mayor Mary L. Ford's office, a circulation desk for the Shutesbury Library, and cubbyholes for the daycare at the People's Institute in Northampton. 

Toward the end of the program, students also focus on finding jobs. 

Harrison, who assists students with resumes and job searches, said that she is optimistic that everyone who wants a job will get one after graduating. Already half of this year's class have positions that start soon after the program ends in June. 

Carving a Niche
Founded three years ago by Michael Coffey, the school was originally named One Cottage Street School of Fine Woodworking. Harrison was the business manager and Squire taught and developed curriculum. When Coffey decided to close the business last summer, Harrison and Squire took over. 

They bought much of Coffey's equipment and restructured the nine-month program, but otherwise continued to offer similar classes. 

Harrison and Squire purposefully want the nearly year-long certification program to cater to those in job training programs and those pursuing a woodworking career on their own. This year's class represents that diversity. 

Support from the Franklin/Hampshire Training Job Consortium is enabling Cheryl Patnode, 35, to pursue a long-time dream. Growing up, Patnode watched her dad do woodworking, and she has carved since she was 10. Her professional work, however, has been mainly as a cook. 

A few years ago, Patnode, who lives in Greenfield, went to the Eastern States Woodworking Show and realized "this is what I want to do." 

Though graduation isn't until June, Patnode already has a job lined up with Paul Herbert Woodworking, a production company in Torrington, Conn., that has produced displays for Yankee Candle Co. 

David Snead, 24, came from Baltimore to learn here and hopes to secure a much-sought after apprenticeship with a master cabinet-maker afterwards. "I always knew I wanted to move towards fine woodworking," said Snead. 

Different from the master-apprentice relation of years ago, Snead will pay $10,000 for the year-long opportunity, if he is accepted. 

Explaining his decision to come to the school, Snead said that he couldn't get into an apprenticeship without a solid base of knowledge. He searched the east coast for schools, but settled on Architectural Woodworking because of its thorough program. 

Lisa Patel, 29, who graduated in 1996, left work in human services management to attend the program. 

"I wanted a change," she said. "I had done a little woodworking as a hobby and it was so much more fulfilling than sitting at a computer.' 

Patel is currently employed as an architectural woodworker with Mark Richy Woodworking in Essex. 

Return to TOP of Page

Woodworking School Scores in Job Market
Union News April 9, 1997
By David Bergengren  

With potential employers calling in virtually every day, and five of its 10 enrolled students already lined up for jobs after they graduate in June, school co-owners Stephen Squire and Faith Harrison are happy to be able to place their graduates directly into jobs. 

"The economy is good, it's hot.  Employers are calling from all over the country, " Squire said. 

Harrison said the 35-week program of five hours a day, five days a week, that the school runs at One Cottage Street, offers something different.  "We think we're unique in teaching architectural woodworking, and placing people in jobs," she said.   "We don't know anybody else who's doing this." 

Architectural woodworking refers to the crafting of a wide range of woodworking accessories for homes, offices and other buildings.  Architectural woodworkers build items such as cabinets, desks, conference tables, store displays and decorative trim, among other things. 

Squire said some community colleges offer programs somewhat similar to those he offers, but that the duration, intensity and job-training aspects of the programs are different.   "Job training is a part of our program.  We're really interested in preparing people well," Squire said.  Job training includes skills such as punctuality, dependability, working well with others and skills in interviewing for jobs. 

Former owner Michael Coffey turned the school, formerly called the One Cottage Street School of Fine Woodworking, over to Squire and Harrison last year, Harrison said. 

The school has scheduled its first open house for Friday from 3 to 7.  Anyone who is interested may attend the open house, but the school has extended invitations specifically to area high-school students, teachers, guidance counselors and parents in an effort to broaden the school's student base to include recent graduates of high schools. 

The school, which is in its third full 35-week session, has traditionally served adults who have been laid off from jobs or who otherwise are in need of job retraining. 

"I'm headed in the right direction now," said Arthur Duso, 52, who attended the school's second session after he was laid off from his job at the Digital Equipment Corp. in Westfield.  "I've got a job, and thanks to Steve and the school I've got a little trade going."  Duso now works for Deerfield Woodworking in Holyoke, and does woodworking projects of his own in the basement of his home. 

Cheryl Patnode of Greenfield, like about half the school's 10 students, received financial aid to cover a part of the school's $6,300 tuition.  Patnode, 35, a single parent previously working part-time in agriculture, received $2,500 from Franklin-Hampshire Job Training Consortium, she said.  Patnode, scheduled to graduate in June, has already landed a full-time job with Paul Herbert Woodworking of Torrington, Conn., and is thrilled at the prospect.  "I can't believe it.  It's incredible," she said. 

The school plans to start a fourth session in September which will possibly include 20 students, with 10 attending in the mornings and 10 in the afternoons.  The school also offers shorter summer sessions. 

Return to TOP of Page

Educational Program Revived
Woodshop News February 1997
By Melanie Winters  

The 37-week program is being held in 3,700 sq. ft. of space in a converted mill building known as one Cottage Street, in Easthampton, Mass.  The program is designed to teach students basic and advanced woodworking skills, machinery, wood technology, finishing, tool and machine maintenance, safety procedures, and shop operation. 

The school is owned by Faith Harrison and Steve Squire, both of whom worked for Michael Coffey's One Cottage Street School of Fine Woodworking before it closed last summer.   Harrison was the bookkeeper and Squire did curriculum development and some of the teaching.  Squire's background in woodworking includes 12 years with the Hartford Builders Finish Co. in Hartford, Conn., and he has a certificate in Construction management from Hartford State Technical College.  In addition to teaching at his new school,  Squire runs a one-man architectural woodworking shop out of his barn in Stafford Springs, Conn. 

Coffey had tried to sell the school to spend more time on his sculptural furniture business.  He was unable to find a buyer, but said he wanted to see the school continue.  "I was looking for someone to take it over because it was successful," he said.  So when he couldn't sell it he decided to dissolve it as a business and sell some of his equipment to Harrison and Squire, who renegotiated the lease and refined the program.  "It's the same program, but we refined it and narrowed it down to the architectural woodworking field," Harrison said. 

Squire is the sole instructor for the five-hour daily class.  He said the students' first lessons on machinery are initial sizing operations on the sliding table saw, panel saw or cut off and rip saws.  These are followed by facing, edge jointing and thickness planing.  Basic joinery techniques such as rabbeting, dedoing, grooving and mitering, operating plate or biscuit joiners, and clamping are also covered.   Adjunct lessons include tool and machine care, hardware components, and basic business practices such as time and cost pricing, and job estimating. 

Following this introduction, students are expected to perform on-the-job projects for public and nonprofit organizations, such as a workstation for the mayor's office in Northampton, Mass.  This included devising budgets and delivery dates to tie in woodworking with the skills needed to run a business, Squire said. 

According to literature provided by the school, students will receive job placement assistance in a variety of woodworking fields, such as architectural millwork, furniture and kitchen cabinets. 

Tuition is $6,500.  Payment of $1,000 prior to the start date is required to hold a place, with the balance du the first day of class.  Each session is limited to 10 students; nine students are currently enrolled.  The session beginning in February will be conducted from 1 to 6 pm Monday through Friday. 

For more information, contact the school at One Cottage Street, Easthampton, MA   01027.  Tel:  413-527-6103.