WOOD SOFT-ARCHING ARBOR #15

The Four-Post Garden Arbor #15 specifications have chnaged as of spring 2024. Although some of the examples below show the trusses at 2-¼” and 3″ thickness, the original, and standard going forward are trusses at 1-⅝” thickness.

• Soft radius, with mortised cross-slats.
• Arched trusses at 1-5/8″ thickness x 3-1/2″ or 5-1/2″ width.
• Optional Keystones (Base + 7%)
• Built to your specified width and depth.
• Shipped fully assembled.
• When accompanying a gate that has an arched top rail, the radius of the arbor and the gate are commonly matched.

Garden Gate Arbor #15-5 shows 5-1/2″ wide trusses at 3″ thickness. (The 3″ thickness is no longer available). Keystones.
Accompanying foyer panels as fence style #20.

Orinda, CA

Garden Gate Arbor #15-5 as a free-standing assembly. Shown with optional Foyer Panels Style #21, with the open grids acting as the perfect host for climbing vines.

Orinda, CA

A good look at the flush-joined grids of the optional Foyer Panel.

Rodney and his new sweetheart Ms. Mullens have taken a stroll in the gardens when he learns of her hidden past. The grids. A grid phobia, and he wonders What Else? What else is she hiding and why can’t he find a normal girl. Just a normal sweetheart. Is that asking so much?

Orinda, CA

Garden Gate Arbor #15-5 as a free-standing assembly prior to installation of the Foyer Panels and the eventual maturing foliage.

The Garden Arbor #15-8 shows 5-1/2″ wide trusses at 3″ thickness. (The 3″ thickness is no longer available) Keystones.
Shown with foyer panels style #21 and Dutch Gate #116-2
The arbor depth on this image is 48″.

La Jolla, CA

Photographed two years later, with the wisteria in full bloom.

La Jolla, CA

From within the property

La Jolla, CA

On approach from the street.

La Jolla, CA

Sometimes it’s nice to see a ‘before’ photo. An upgrade, you’ll agree.

The Garden Arbor #15-4 with the two crossbeams of 3″T x 5-1/2″.
Arbor trusses at 1-⅝”T.
Keystone

#15-4 is designed as a 2-post arbor, requiring corbels.

Shown with Garden Gate Style #20
Prowell’s Arched Corbel #1
To view the corbel styles and pricing, click here

Orinda, CA
Keystone. Power source embedded wiring extra

The Garden Arbor #15-2 shown with Garden Gate style #20, with a keystone. 1-⅝” thick arbor trusses

Here we see the radius of the gate arch considerably softer than that of the arbor, primarily because the gate width is 60″. To match the gate radius to that of the arbor would have raised the gate arch, and consequently the overall height of the arbor beyond that allowed by local codes. It’s never a cut-and-dry option.

Orinda, CA

Garden Arbor #15-2 is configured to allow a lighting fixture mounted to the underside of the arbor. To have your arbor wired for a lighting fixture with fully concealed wiring, as shown below: add $325. The wiring is embedded and will stub out coiled from the mounting cap with sufficient length to run the length of the site post and junction at grade to the source.

Mill Valley, CA
Keystone. Arbor trusses: 1-⅝” thickness

An early #15 Gate Arbor from the late 90’s. The side, or ‘Foyer’ panels, show arching top rails. Shown with Garden Gate #57, and Fence Style #2.

Mill Valley, CA

The same Four-Post Garden Arbor photographed 15 years later. The homeowner originally applied a single application of a Cabot Heartwood oil, which gradually grayed out to the weathered look below. Finishing the Prowell products does not prolong their life or preserve their structural integrity.

Your decision to apply a finish should be based upon your visual preference only. To avoid finishes that are less than optimal, please follow the guidelines and suggested products at A Word About Finishing

Sausalito, CA
3″ Thick Truss. Keystone

The Original Garden Gate Arbor #15, from 1994. Overlooking the San Francisco Bay.
Truss thickness: 3″ x 3-1/2″W. With Keystone
An early keystone design that has since been modified. Both the gate and arbor with the same arching radius.
The mailbox appendage was designed and built by Prowell.

IN-PROGRESS

R outing the mortises for the cross-slats.

C hiseling the dovetail mortise for the center cross-slat.

Fitting the mail dovetail on the center cross-slat into the female mortise.

Set up on Ben Prowell’s workbench, where the mortises were cut by hand with a lovely old Stanley #71 Router Plane.

The Stanley Router Plane. A lost art, single-handedly being revived.

The mirrored trusses mortised with their flywheel pattern.

The cross-slats are given a stepped-haunch tenon.

Ben fashioning the inlay keystone with the Stanley Router Plane.

Ben easing the edges with a Lee Veritas edge plane.

This is what happens if you do not insist your installer read the install guides. Here, the mounting lags were ignored, and the arbor was simply seated onto the posts and that was that. But . . . in time the vines and climbers will exert enough persuasive torque to actually lift the entire arbor off the posts.