Andew Gustine is the principal of Native Woods Restoration Carpentry, a contracting and consulting firm specializing in museum-quality building preservation services. For 20 years he has combined a love of architecture and a dedication to craftsmanship, exploring the long history and infinite possibilities of traditional building materials.
After graduating from Penn State University with a Liberal Arts degree, Andrew began an apprenticeship with the Pennsylvania firm Recycle the Barn People. The company employed a team of skilled carpenters who specialized in the restoration and the re-use of historical wooden structures and their components. The work required a new type of problem solving and perspective that drew Andrew deeper into old-world tradition and at the same time raised questions about the combinations of traditional and modern materials and systems.
After advancing quickly from journeyman to job-foreman and estimator, Andrew founded his own restoration company, Native Woods Restoration Carpentry, in 1995. Providing museum-quality building preservation services throughout the Mid-Atlantic States, this small company grew by word of mouth and received recognition including the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia Grand Jury Award in 2003 and 2011. Owning and operating his own business was an opportunity to continually raise the bar of excellence and precision at his craft, and to develop a personal approach to project management and leadership as a general contractor.
In 1997 he enrolled in the Masters of Science in Historic Preservation program at the University of Pennsylvania, focusing on the history of building technology and materials science. While attending Penn part time and still managing Native Woods, Andrew also began to do contract and consulting work for private clients as well as larger Philadelphia area firms like John Milner Associates and S.Y. Harris and Co. He was able to apply his education and his work experience while gaining experience in condition assessment, pathology investigation and specifications writing for preservation projects in Philadelphia, Virginia and Maryland.
After receiving a Master’s degree, Andrew devoted his full focus back to Native Woods, expanding the firm’s professional services to include assessment, design and planning, as well as general contracting. In the true spirit of the Journeyman system, Andrew welcomed and nurtured bright, educated apprentices, instructing and directing, demanding professionalism and attention to detail without exception. As the size of projects grew, so did a network of like-minded sub-contractors and suppliers, independent craftsmen and mechanics, all of whom share a passionate and professional attitude towards their trade.
Native Woods continues to specialize in small, complicated, multi-trade projects where high professional standards and attention to detail are the priority.
