by Web Editor | Jul 21, 2017 | News
Silicon Valley design-build firm Katerra is using a technology-driven and full-services approach to creating prefabricated structures at a large scale. Based in Menlo Park, California, Katerra was started in 2015 by Michael Marks, Jim Davidson and Fritz H Wolff. Combined, the three men have decades of experience in the technology, manufacturing, real estate and private equity industries. In 2007, Marks served as the interim CEO at Tesla.
The design-build startup – which describes itself as a technology company – has about 60 architects on staff, along with 10 interior designers. The team is led by architect Craig Curtis, who formerly was a partner at The Miller Hull Partnership, a prominent Seattle firm.
Katerra’s overarching mission is to streamline the design and construction process while still providing good architecture. “Our goal is to remove unnecessary time and costs from the building process while also providing world-class design,” said the firm, which is one of the investors in Architizer’s online marketplace for architectural products.
Katerra believes it stands apart from other design-build firms because of its focus on utilizing technology and modular components to create large-scale multifamily, commercial and institutional projects. It also handles all steps of the building process, including site development, schematic design, fabrication of parts and onsite construction. “Through curating our own high-quality supply chain we can provide a fully coordinated design, much like what you would expect when buying a car,” the firm said. “By working within one fully integrated service model, clients no longer need to depend on multiple partners and vendors.”
The firm generally uses wood frame construction, with several upcoming projects featuring cross-laminated timber (CLT). “Katerra is aggressively pursuing CLT, with plans to help North America start using the material on scale with Europe,” the company stated.
From Dezeen: https://www.dezeen.com/2017/07/19/katerra-combines-technology-modular-construction-large-scale-prefabricated-buildings/
by Web Editor | Jul 17, 2017 | News
A two-story cross-laminated timber (CLT) structure is being subjected to the forces produced by a 1994 6.7 Northridge earthquake. The engineered simulation is expected to reveal ways in which tall wood buildings could survive damaging earthquakes.
Workers constructed a 22-foot tall wood test structure on UC San Diego’s shake table, a device for shaking structural models or building components with a wide range of simulated ground motions, like earthquakes.
Led by the Colorado School of Mines (CSM), the new test will examine the viability of constructing quake-resistant CLT buildings that could be as tall as 20 stories high.
“We are working to minimize the amount of time buildings are out of service after large earthquakes,” CSM engineer Shiling Pei said in a statement. “We are also focused on cutting the costs required to repair them.”
Cross-laminated timber advocates say it can be used to construct buildings of equal strength and fire-resistance as those made of steel and concrete. It has also fueled the passions of architects and environmentalists, who believe it to be a much greener method for housing the world’s growing population.
From Woodworking Network: https://www.woodworkingnetwork.com/two-story-cross-laminated-timber-simulated-67-earthquake?ss=news,news,woodworking_industry_news,news,almanac_market_data,news,canadian_news
by Web Editor | Jun 23, 2017 | News
From: Panel World Editors
International Beams plans to build the first cross-laminated timber production facility in the Southeastern U.S. in Dothan, Ala. A 227,000 square foot facility, a vacated GE plant, will be the manufacturing site for the company’s two new products, MAX-CORE CLT and MAX-CORE GLULAM.
International Beams, which has EWP (LVL, I-joist and rimboard) manufacturing facilities in Quebec and Ontario and is headquartered in Sarasota, Fla., was approved to receive tax incentive abatements for 10 years by the state of Alabama and the Houston County and 20 years by the city of Dothan.
Additionally, the Commission approved appropriating $632,000 to the Industrial Development Board of Dothan to meet obligations with the Alabama Municipal Electric Authority to facilitate the IB XLAM USA project.
by Web Editor | Jun 13, 2017 | News
Timber construction is opening a new market that has been keeping lumber and milling machinery busy at a growing number of wood products companies, including Montreal’s Nordic Structures, Sauter Timber in Rockwood, Tennessee, SmartLam, in Columbia Falls, Montana, and D.R. Johnson, in Portland, Oregon.
Oregon-based D.R. Johnson Wood Innovations, a subsidiary of D.R. Johnson, specializes in the manufacture of cross-laminated timber, or CLT, and glue-laminated beams from Douglas fir and Alaskan yellow cedar. D.R. Johnson Wood was the first U.S. company to receive APA/ANSI certification to manufacture structural CLT panels – and CEO Valerie Johnson plans to help grow the U.S. market.
D.R. Johnson has received the first U.S. certification to manufacture cross-laminated timbers (CLT) under a new standard approved last year by the American National Standards Institute. D.R. Johnson is one of only three North American companies certified by the Engineered Wood Association to construct CLT for use in buildings.
Johnson’s company employs 125 at a traditional sawmill and laminating plant, which was recently expanded by 13,000 square feet for increased CLT production. They’re currently fielding calls from hopeful builders, and manufacturing samples to be tested for fire safety and structural quality. One recent new wood construction project is a 14-story wooden apartment tower being built in Portland, Oregon.
From Woodworking Network: https://www.woodworkingnetwork.com/wood/pricing-supply/timber-construction-has-lumber-milling-machinery-rolling
by Web Editor | Jun 7, 2017 | News
Officials in Oregon have approved construction permits for the first all-wood high-rise building in the nation. Construction on the 12-story building, called Framework, will break ground this fall in Portland’s trendy and rapidly growing Pearl District and is expected to be completed by the following winter.
The decision by state and local authorities to allow construction comes after months of painstaking testing of the emerging technologies that will be used to build it, including a product called cross-laminated timber, or CLT.
To make CLT, lumber manufacturers align 2-by-4 boards in perpendicular layers and then glue them together like a giant sandwich before sliding the resulting panels into a massive press for drying. The resulting panels are stronger than traditional wood because of the cross-hatched layers; CLT can withstand horizontal and vertical pressures similar to those from a significant earthquake with minimal damage. They also are lighter and easier to work with than regular timber, resulting in lower cost and less waste.
For this project, scientists at Portland State University and Oregon State University subjected large panels of CLT to hundreds of thousands of pounds of pressure and experimented with different methods for joining them together. The project materials also underwent extensive fire safety testing and met fire codes.
State officials hope the building will stir greater interest in high-rise construction using mass timber and help revitalize the state’s lagging logging industry. Logging, once a major source of revenue in Oregon, has dropped sharply in the past few decades because of greater environmental protections for salmon and the spotted owl. The loss of the industry has devastated some of the state’s rural communities.
From The Register-Guard: https://registerguard.com/rg/news/local/35651365-75/portland-approves-permit-for-nations-first-all-wood-high-rise.html.csp
