by Web Editor | Nov 30, 2015 | News
We get so excited about Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT), the fancy plywood on steroids that we talk so much about on TreeHugger. But in fact, there is a much older technology for building with wood, that warehouses and factories were built out of 150 years ago with a fancy new name: Nail-Laminated Timber, or NLT. It used to be known as heavy timber or mill decking and is drop-dead simple: you just nail a pile of lumber together and voila.
Lucas Epp of Structurecraft stunned the audience in a presentation at the Wood Solutions Fair in Toronto, showing extraordinary projects built out of the stuff. Because while CLT is great stuff, it’s pretty new in North America, it’s expensive, and it’s not fully understood by the building inspectors. Whereas if you are doing a simple span, NLT does the job just fine, it’s a lot cheaper, can be made by anyone with a hammer and has been in the building codes forever.
It’s now being used in a 210,000 square foot, seven story office building in Minneapolis, where the developer, Hines, wanted “the warmth of wood and the embrace of green construction techniques and materials” to attract the tech and creative sector of the market. It also goes together much faster than a conventional steel or concrete building.
Heavy timber office and warehouse construction fell out of favor early in the 20th century after major fires in a number of cities caused the switch to concrete and steel noncombustible construction. The development of effective sprinklers has reduced that risk, and concerns about the carbon footprint of concrete have made renewable wood look a lot more attractive.
From TreeHugger.com: https://www.treehugger.com/green-architecture/old-new-again-nail-laminated-timber.html?utm_source=WIT112715&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=WeekInTrees
by Web Editor | Nov 20, 2015 | News
Portland is growing up—adding high-rises, increasing density, and pricing many people out. But two local firms are exploring a state-of-the-art building material that could help solve the city’s affordability problem, create living-wage jobs in rural communities, and help save the planet. It’s wood.
Right now, Portland-based LEVER Architecture and real estate development firm Project^ are designing a 12-story mixed-use wood building in the Pearl District that will be made primarily of a material called cross-laminated timber (CLT).
That’s an unheard of height for wood structures, which top out at six stories in most of the US. And it’s not the project’s only unique attribute. Five of those stories will be affordable housing, something Portland desperately needs.
LEVER and Project^ have partnered with Beneficial State Bank (which owns the property at 430 NW 10th), Albina Community Bank, and the housing agency Home Forward on the development, which they’re calling Framework.
The team’s ideas received national attention: In September, the US Department of Agriculture awarded the project a $1.5 million grant—money that will help alleviate the cost of proving to state and local building authorities that tall wooden buildings can meet safety requirements for earthquakes, fires, and other perils.
From The Portland Mercury: https://www.portlandmercury.com/portland/the-worlds-most-sustainable-high-rise-construction-material-is-wood/Content?utm_source=WIT112015&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=WeekInTrees&oid=16991973
by Web Editor | Nov 16, 2015 | News
From: Panel World Staff
Allyn Ford, CEO and president of Oregon-based Roseburg Forest Products, announced that the Ford Family and the Roseburg Board of Directors have chosen Grady Mulbery to assume the role of Roseburg President effective January 1. Ford will continue in his role as CEO until January 2017, when he will retire, at which point Mulbery will assume the joint role of CEO and president. Ford will continue as Chairman of the Board for Roseburg after stepping out of the company’s top executive role.
“I am pleased to say that we have selected an internal candidate to first step into the president’s role then move into the CEO role when I retire from that position,” Ford says. “Grady has demonstrated his readiness and willingness to lead our organization, and this not only provides a strong sense of security, but also one of continuity in pursuing our vision and living our values as a company.”
Mulbery joined Roseburg in early 2011 as vice president of Composites Manufacturing and later became vice president of Manufacturing. He has led Roseburg’s production operations since 2012. Prior to becoming part of Roseburg’s Executive Team, he was director of Manufacturing for SierraPine.
“I am humbled and excited by the opportunity to move into this new role with Roseburg, and I am committed to continuing the pursuit of growth and stability that Allyn has led for the past several years,” Mulbery says. “We have a strongly dedicated Executive Team and organizational leadership that shares in the vision that we have set for the company and a Board led by Allyn that also is committed to Roseburg’s ongoing development.”
Ford has been CEO/president of Roseburg Forest Products since 1997, after overseeing the company’s timberlands for several years. He succeeded his father, the legendary, late Kenneth Ford, who started the company in 1936.
Today Roseburg owns more than 630,000 acres of timberland in the Western U.S. It operates a sawmill in Dillard, Ore.; three plywood facilities in Dillard, Coquille and Riddle, Ore.; softwood veneer facility in Weed, Calif.; eningeered wood products facility in Riddle; four particleboard facilities in Dillard, Missoula, Mont.; Taylorsville, Miss.; and Simsboro, La.; MDF facility in Medford, Ore.; four decorative thermally fused laminate panel facilities in Oxford, Miss; Missoula, Simsboro and Dillard; two pre-finished panel facilities in Dillard and Missoula; two panel cut-to-size facilities in Oxford and Dillard; a wood chip export terminal in North Bend, Ore. The company employs more than 3,000. It has already announced plans to move headquarters from Dillard to Springfield, Ore. later next year.
by Web Editor | Nov 9, 2015 | News
From: Panel World Staff
Weyerhaeuser Co. and Plum Creek announced a merger that will leave nearly two-thirds majority ownership in Weyerhaeuser shareholder hands. The combined company creates a $23 billion timber REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) with more than 13 million acres of timberland in the U.S.
The combined company will retain the Weyerhaeuser name. As previously announced, Weyerhaeuser intends to move its headquarters to Seattle in mid-2016. Weyerhaeuser brings nearly 7 million acres and Plum Creek 6.3 million acres to the deal.
Weyerhaeuser also announced it is exploring “strategic alternatives” for its Cellulose Fibers business, including a possible sale. The company’s Cellulose Fibers business includes pulp mills in Port Wentworth, Ga.; Vanceboro, NC; Grande Prairie, Alberta; and a modified fiber mill in Columbus, Miss.; as well as other facilities internationally.
Plum Creek operates a medium density fiberboard plant, plywood mill and a board sawmill in Columbia Falls, Mont.; a plywood mill in Kalispell, Mont.; and a stud mill in Kalispell/Evergreen, Mont.
Weyerhaeuser operates approximately 11 sawmills in the Southern U.S., four in the Northwest and three in Canada. It also operates various engineered wood products facilities in North America.
Weyerhaeuser’s Doyle Simons will serve as president and CEO of the combined company. Plum Creek’s Rick Holley will serve as non-executive chairman of Weyerhaeuser’s board, which will be expanded to 13 directors, which will include eight directors from Weyerhaeuser and five from Plum Creek.
The transaction requires the approval of shareholders of both Weyerhaeuser and Plum Creek and is subject to customary closing conditions. The transaction is expected to close in late first quarter or early second quarter of 2016.
by Web Editor | Nov 4, 2015 | News
Grand Rapids, MI-based Universal Forest Products, manufacturer of wood and wood-alternative products, pressure-treated lumber, and engineered wood products, opened a new manufacturing plant in Magna, UT this year.
General Manager Jon Christiansen told Deseret News that the new facility is expected to hire approximately 30 workers over the next three to five years.
Universal, founded in 1955, has subsidiaries that supply wood, wood composite and other products to the retail, construction and industrial markets.
Earlier this year the company purchased the assets of Idaho-based Rapid Wood Mfg., and it also has acquired a majority interest in the Brisbane, Australia-based Integra Packaging Proprietary, which manufactures packaging and wood specialty packaging products.
From Woodworking Network: https://www.woodworkingnetwork.com/news/woodworking-industry-news/universal-forest-products-opens-utah-plant-adds-30-new-jobs?ss=news,news,woodworking_industry_news,news,almanac_market_data,news
by Web Editor | Nov 2, 2015 | News
From: Panel World Staff
Jackson Morrill, president of Composite Panel Association, updated the executive committee’s recommendations on “policy positions” with regard to energy/biomass issues that impact wood fiber supply during the September Fall Meeting in Banff, Alberta.
CPA opposes government policies that distort the market for woody biomass raw material, Morrill noted, adding that market forces should determine all uses of wood and wood residuals for renewable energy; policies that have the direct effect of diverting biomass supply to subsidized energy should be avoided; and governments that choose to initiate policies intended to increase demand for biomass energy production should couple them with policies that increase the available long-term supply of wood to meet future demand of composite wood panels as well as new and growing markets for energy and other uses.
Morrill said CPA will stay silent on the carbon neutrality of wood-to-energy, noting however that forest derived biomass should be treated as carbon neutral where there is a sustainable growing forest; within carbon accounting frameworks, the composite panel industry’s use of wood residuals to make long-lived products should be treated as a higher value use than energy recovery; the composite panel industry’s use of wood residuals is an important alternate use that should be considered when determining the scope of “qualified biomass” under the U.S. EPA Clean Power Plan.
Morrill said CPA will advocate that composite wood products be recognized for their carbon sequestration benefits; that public policies should recognize that sustainably managed forests and forest products sequester and store carbon and reduce CO2; the use of biomass in creating long-lived products that serve as carbon sinks should be formally recognized in any carbon calculations that might be referenced in a future carbon economy.
