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Stories in the development of tall timber

WHERE DOES THE FUTURE OF MASS TIMBER GO FROM HERE?      [PART 1] FIBRE SUPPLY

6/11/2017

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Mass Timber appears to be taking off as an accepted, no, preferred method of construction in the modern world. Europe is ripe with projects in the pipelines and suppliers struggling to keep up with demand. Australia and New Zealand are building their own production plants and moving forward with a number of firms eager to build smarter. North America is saturated with weekly announcements of new production facilities opening, design firms starting up, and massive projects being undertaken. 

For many groups previously involved in the industry this is everything we could hope for and more. Finally getting to play with the big teams in construction and show them what we can really do. Seeing our value being incorporated into the folds of society. The current Tallest Mass Timber building in the world, UBC Brock Commons demonstrated not only how Mass Timber can be smarter, but also how it can be produced costs effectively and pair with modern manufacturing techniques. Since that point the flood gates have opening and many design and construction teams are considering joining in on this bright future. However, this key turning point doesn't come without concerns or uncertainty of where the future may take us. 
UBC Brock Commons CLT
UBC Brock Commons - Post & Platform CLT, Photo by Seagate Structures
The questions that immediately come to my mind currently relate to fibre supplies, design skills to implement, lofty expectations and upcoming fire codes. Let's start with a small discussion on each of these issues over the next few blog posts:

FIBRE SUPPLY FOR MASS TIMBER

Fibre supply for Mass Timber carries inherent concerns. Can we grow enough tress in a sustainable manner to produce all of the projects we have developing? At current market size, this is a no brainer and not much of an issue at all, however if Mass Timber starts to take up, 5, 10, 15, 30% of the market place for new construction, will sustainable forestry practices be able to meet demand? The answer remains to be seen, however, I believe as we integrate Mass Timber further into our everyday lives we will see society put more value on timber lands, not only for their fibre value, but also for their intrinsic ecological value. Building with Mass Timber creates a link back to the natural world that will hopefully help humanity through the next centuries. 

I am getting side tracked here, but the point I am slowly digging at is that as we value forest ecology further as both a wild land and sustainable crop for harvest we will hopefully see better utilization of fibre and longer lasting products of intrinsic wealth being built out of them. The average lifespan of a single family dwelling in the US is 40 years! That is absolutely pathetic. However, with Mass Timber buildings being created my hopes are that this higher value, massive product will have more thought put into it, and withstand the tests of time better, aiming for 200 year or why not 400 year lifespans? If this does become the new norm, we can expect that fibre supply, in the long distant term will level out to a sustainable development rate. 

Looking at the 18 story UBC Brock Commons project, it used roughly 2000 m^3 of CLT and 220 m^3 of glulam. This roughly amounts to 15,000 trees, and all of this lumber took Canadian forests roughly 5 mins to grow. In another lens this would require 3 - 4 acres of land set aside for 40 years to grow enough timber to house 404 students. To me, that comes out as a sustainable practice, that signals long term for thought and intensity of purpose.    
​VIDEO LINK TO UBC BROCK COMMONS
Penticton Lakeside Resort Interior CLT
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Ok, enough dreaming and wishy washy talk. What problems are we faced with today? 

Well for one, fibre prices have gone through the roof in North America over the last year. A trade war on Softwood lumber between Canada and the US has jacked up prices, large natural disasters and hurricanes have increased demand on framing lumber and record breaking forest fires have limited supply. Are these prices here to stay? More importantly, do these prices allow Mass Timber to be an economical competitor with steel or concrete alternatives?

These prices are most likely not here to stay, historically we have seen a range of fibre surges, however they have always returned to a normal baseline. As for current prices being economically competitive with other forms of construction I have seen many examples of projects that still pass the sniff test to be produced in Mass Timber, however there is something to be said for fibre optimization and conservation of resources.
Mass Timber buildings will continue to be economically viable in a number of situations for those who know how to build efficiently, my worries are that a number of first time evaluators will be starting to review Mass Timber options based on currently high fibre prices. These early onset team may not be able to make their project work due to difficult or poor design implementation and then move back to steel or concrete without giving this revolutionary construction system the proper critique or time it deserves. 

Europe has currently remained relatively within its own fibre costs bubble, however the demands of the US housing market will slowly reach their shores and we will see upticks in the costs of fibre across the board. Next spring we will likely see lumber prices come back down to reality, however we are currently riding a record breaking high, so what will the new reality set at, and will Mass Timber still be seen as an economically logical means of construction? 
10 Year High Lumber Price
Nasdaq Lumber Price - 10 year high (Nov 6th 2017)
Construction teams I have been working with recently have gone to no end in scrutinizing costs and calling for five or more rounds of repricing, comparing both steel and concrete alternatives, so far at the end of the day these price points have still worked for the projects we have evaluated and they have persisted with their Mass Timber design. 

I believe the Timber Revolution will make it through these challenges, and maybe these are the break pads necessary to ensure we stay within the bounds of logic and sustainability. How do you see fibre supply determining the future of Mass Timber? ​

PS. Look forward to hearing more about some of these large scale revolutionary projects that have entered the Mass Timber landscape signalling mainstream acceptance.  
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FRAMEWORK, A Look at PORTLAND's Most RECENT WOOD Success by WPA.

18/10/2015

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Works Partnership Architecture is excited to complete their elegant portland office space project, FrameWork. The building provides a clean interior for a variety of tenant uses, while being structurally honest to the materials used and their aesthetic properties. 

Framework is a direct adaptation of the historic small plate timber structures that weave through the building fabric of the central eastside of Portland. Structurally little different than neighbouring 100 year old structures, the elimination of the masonry perimeter walls necessitated a shift in identify. Traditional wall and window are able to give way to a simple glass vitrine that allows the warmth of the wood interior to be clearly seen from the street.  The retail frontage in the concrete base is allowed to take on a more sculptural reading, relating by contrast to the taut glass skin above.

The building stands 5 stories tall with mixed concrete and timber on the base floor and a repeated exposed timber structure on levels 2-5. This project only represents the beginning of revitalization a long history of advanced heavy timber construction in the Pacific North West. The natural local materials are not only environmentally friendly, but they also serve to speak to the rebirth of an architectural culture in timber design.  We look forward to many more interesting Mass Timber projects from the Portland area and anticipate Works Partnership Architecture to play a major role in the development of these beautiful, and intrinsically valuable structures. 
Heavy Timber Office
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Images courtesy Joshua Jay Elliott. 
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US Tall Timber FUnding Winners Announced

21/9/2015

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Images courtesy of Lever & Shop Architects. 
The United States has always been one to do new things in a big way. In this case the concepts are not exactly new, but they are big! 

The USDA announced early last week the winners of $3 million in funding grants in support of greener, carbon friendly wood based high rise construction technology. Modern engineered Mass Timber products have made the continued development of high rise timber projects around the world possible.

Between the years 1880 -1940 there were over 300 Mass timber projects built in the "new world" centres above 6 stories, with the tallest being 9 stories. These projects have not only demonstrated the viability and longevity of these structures, but many of them have served to show the amazing beauty of these authentic marvels. Shortly after World War II, steel and concrete took over the leading rolls in construction development. Timber and many other natural materials were left in the dust believed to be old and inferior materials.

Although Cross Laminated Timber was developed in the mid 90's, the modern timber renaissance did not start until around 2005 when a series of forward thinking Architects started to develop taller timber structures. Engineered  Mass Timber products gave designers the reliability to make these redevelopments. Building codes around the world have had to be re-examined to allow the implementation of such tall timber projects, a copious body of testing has almost universally shown Mass Timber to exhibit extraordinary fire protection properties along with a slew of unique structural characteristics. These properties are only part of the side show though as one of the primary motivations for choosing wood based products in our modern era is to use renewable materials while reducing our carbon footprint. Mass timber inherently excels in both of these attributes. 

One of the two grant winning projects consists of a 12 story, mixed use building in downtown Portland, backed by the Beneficial State Bancorp. The project is supported by a motivated group of key Oregon movers who are seeking to revive Oregon's turn of the century Timber Legacy.  Lever architecture is providing the vision behind the interesting building pictures on the top left. 

ARuP and SHOP Architects have teamed up to turn new leaf over in the big apple. New York is set to see a 10 story residential development at 475 West 18th. The project focuses on a drastic reduction to building energy load as well as the goal of reaching LEED platinum. 

The next few years will surely be interesting as we see Mass Timber projects each take their own approach to a perfect system. How do you measure the success of these building systems? 
Occupation use? Carbon footprint? Aesthetic  review? Time to complete? Life-Cycle Costs? Or raw construction costs? The answer is linked to all of the above. With the right teams being assembled we are seeing the dawn of the Mass Timber Renaissance, were these projects will outrun concrete and steel alternatives in all categories. For the time being we are only limited by our dreams. 

More information HERE. 
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Carbon 12 Set to bring Portland back to the forEfront of Mass Timber Construction

14/9/2015

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Carbon 12 is an 8 story Mass Timber building planned for Portland, USA. The building is designed for primary residential use with a small commercial space below, housing two commercial spaces. Glulam vertical supports tie into concrete cores which are all fitted together with Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) floor panels.  The project has been developed by the Kaiser Group and PATH architecture. As the name hints at, the carbon foot print of this project has been one of the primary motivators to choose timber as the main building system. The building is set to be 25.9m (85') tall, putting it in the upper realms of existing projects around the world. 

Portland appears to be undergoing its own tall timber race. The question will be weather they take hints from beyond the Cascades on construction tactics for these projects or if the will they jump into them with American  style gusto and learn the lessons as they go...

The 2015 International Building Code (IBC) has made provisions for CLT, so it is likely that many of the regional hold-ups will be removed and a slew of these Cascadian tall wood buildings will become reality. 


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Images courtesy of: The Kaiser Group. 
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PORTLAND CONSIDERS 11 STORY CLT BUILDING

21/5/2015

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Beneficial State Bank is looking at installing a US first being an 11 story CLT building with mixed use as corporate offices and doubling as affordable housing. This project would represent a  massive leap forward for value added forestry projects from the Pacific North West, as well as sustainable modern construction. 

A brief press release can be read here:
Wood Working Network Portland TallWood
 
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MINNEAPOLIS to build the US's first modern tall wood building BY MGA

12/3/2015

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Photo: MGA via Minnpost.com
A 7 story hybrid timber building has been proposed for downtown Minneapolis. The project, named T3 is a projected 7 stories in height and offers a spacious 210,000 sqft of office space. Michael Green Architecture has designed the project and was chosen for their many previous successes including BC's Wood Innovation and Design Centre in Prince George. The T3 building represents a turning point in American construction where renewable materials play a major roll in the healthy development of our modern cities. These projects work to illustrate and tighten the relationship humanity has with our natural environment. Heavy timber panels and  glulam columns will be used to meet fire structural design requirements for this landmark project. 
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Oregon to open CLT Plant

28/10/2014

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A $150,000 grant has been awarded to Dr. Johnson Lumber Co. from Oregon BEST. The grant will help the company in partnership with Oregon State University develop the countries 2nd CLT plant. The first CLT manufacturer in the United States is located in Whitefish Montana and has selected to keep their products out of the construction industry and instead focus on rig mats which provide a consistent sales base. We hope that this new Oregon based manufacture located near Riddle in Southern Oregon will help promote the use of this material in modern construction techniques. 

There are also rumours of another CLT plant in partnership with European companies opening in Idaho. 

For more information read the Portland Tribune's Article here:
http://portlandtribune.com/sl/238138-104348-grant-will-help-develop-oregons-first-cross-laminated-timber-plant-
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US National Symposium on Tall Wood

23/10/2014

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The US national symposium on tall wood buildings will be held November 6th and 7th in Chicago. Participation costs $125 and will feature a host of presentations by experts in the field. Professional development certificates and AIA CES forms will be available on site for completion.

For questions contact: Jaime Krohn at [email protected] or 312.841.8272
For more information follow this link: http://www.woodworks.org/education-event/toward-taller-wood-buildings/
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U.S. Tall wood Building Prize Competition

27/9/2014

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The United States Department of Agriculture has put up $1 million to launch a competition for U.S. tall wood construction projects. The projects are supported by President Obama's Climate Action Plan which uses productive forests to help mitigate climate change. The Binational Softwood Council has contributed another $1 million towards the competition resulting in $2 million up for grabs in pursuit of tall wood buildings in the United States. 
More can be found programs website here:

https://tallwoodbuildingcompetition.org/
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All U.S. Tall Wood Building Prize Competition inquiries can be directed by email to:

Oscar Faoro
Project Manager
U.S. Tall Wood Building Prize Competition
[email protected]
Or
[email protected]

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