Derek Stevens

Traditional Woodworking and Design

Yankee Design and Building, LLC
740 SE 9th St., Unit 15
Bend, OR 97702
541.312.9588

Email: derek@yankeedesignbuild.com

Yankee Design & Building is headed by founder and owner Derek Stevens, who is a dedicated preservation specialist, designer and master carpenter. He notes that his company brings to each project a passion for historical accuracy. It develops as-built drawings, historic code compliance reviews and full construction documents. In addition, the company offers architectural millwork and furniture and antique restoration services. The business promotes the adaptive reuse of historic buildings, enhancing their inherent character while maintaining compliance with local, state and federal historic standards. It is committed to the principle that the greatest sense of "green design" is the preservation and reuse of historic buildings. The company also offers traditional woodworking lessons, teaching the basics in tool choice, wood selection, joinery, turning and many other facets of the craft.

What kinds of things does your company build?

"We are committed,” Stevens notes, “to creating historically accurate products, using, when available, reclaimed materials. In order to do this, we use traditional designs for both residential and commercial projects. Among other things, we make mantles, in-home offices and/or libraries and custom designed desks and sideboards, as well as entire suites built from a single historic theme or furniture style."

How do you determine what theme or furniture style to use as your models?

"We ask that you allow us to build the vision you have for your home without your having to compromise on style or quality."

Your company also designs, builds and repairs furniture. Explain this part of your business.

"Our services are two-fold. To begin with, we can create any style of furniture that will blend in with your existing theme or style. Secondly, we can take a cherished piece of furniture that is in disrepair, and repair it using methods that are often identical in material and tooling to the original construction. As our clients have said in the past 'I know you fixed it, I just can't see where.' We couldn't ask for any higher form of praise."

What about the part of your business that reproduces and repairs historic windows.

"The most important component of any historic structure is its windows. People tend to believe that to have an energy-efficient building it would require the wholesale removal of the existing windows. This is not the case. Single glazed windows only count for fifteen percent of the total heat loss in any given structure. We can provide a plan that will maintain the windows savings thousands of dollars by correctly restoring and weatherproofing the existing windows. If it was made of wood, we can replicate it".

Your company also does historic consulting. What does that consist of?

"My knowledge of National Register Standards, and my ability to favorably interpret the International Building Code and Residential Codes, gives me the ability to get you through the reviews that are required and steer you away from those that are not. I can do this while making sure that compliance with any local, state, or federal incentives, or tax programs, is met."