by Web Editor | Aug 17, 2018 | News
Thanks to a recent addendum to Oregon’s building code, the state is the first in the country to allow timber buildings to rise higher than six stories without special consideration.
Portland has become something of a hotbed for timber innovation as of late. Carbon12, PATH Architecture’s eight-story glulam and cross-laminated timber (CLT) tower with a steel core, recently became the country’s tallest timber building and was set to be surpassed by LEVER Architecture’s 12-story Framework. Alas, that project was put on hold due to mounting financial difficulties last month, but it seems the precedent that the project achieved in securing a building permit from the State of Oregon and City of Portland will live on.
The timber allowance comes courtesy of Oregon’s statewide alternate method (SAM), a state-specific program that allows for alternate building techniques to be used after an advisory council has approved the “technical and scientific facts of the proposed alternate method.” The allowance comes after the International Code Council (ICC)–the nonprofit group that Oregon models its building codes after–established the ICC Ad Hoc Committee on Tall Wood Buildings in 2015 to explore the benefits and challenges of using timber in tall buildings.
A Committee Action Hearing was held in April of this year, where the Ad Hoc Committee, made up of code experts, stakeholders, and industry members presented their findings. All 14 of the committee’s suggestions were adopted, introducing standards and best practices for fireproofing, the load-bearing potential of CLT and heavy timber, water resistance, sealing, seismic ratings, and more.
Three new building classifications were introduced as a result: Type IV A, timber buildings permitted up to 18 stories and 270 feet tall, Type IV B, timber buildings with a maximum height of 12 stories and 180 feet, and Type IV C, which is permitted to rise nine stories and 85 feet tall at maximum. The shortest of the timber typologies is allowed to use exposed structural timber as an interior finish, whereas the tallest, type A, must enclose all exposed surfaces and include a three-hour fire-resistance rating for the structural elements.
Read more on this from The Architects Newspaper at https://archpaper.com/2018/08/oregon-legalize-mass-timber-high-rises/.
by Web Editor | Nov 15, 2017 | News
The Framework: Home Forward project and the Framework team recently announced that it has been awarded $6 million to develop 60 units of affordable housing in what will be the first high-rise structure in the U.S. made from wood and the first earthquake-resilient building of its kind in America.
The funding award came through the Portland Housing Bureau’s Fast Starts program — a city initiative designed to get shovel-ready affordable housing units built as quickly as possible to react to our city’s housing crisis.
“By investing in Framework, our city will now be home to the first skyscraper made from wood in the United States,” Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler said in a statement released Tuesday. “This project not only reflects Oregon’s leadership in the newly emerging wood products industry of Cross Laminated Timber (CLT), it also demonstrates our city’s commitment to finding innovative ways to quickly deliver affordable units during our housing crisis.”
“Framework was selected as a Fast Starts project after a rigorous process under the city’s new effort to mobilize resources quickly to alleviate the housing crisis,” said Portland Housing Bureau Director Kurt Creager. “Because so many partners have also contributed to make this important project a reality, we have a great opportunity to begin using this innovative technology in Portland to create more resilient, sustainable, and affordable housing.”
Framework, which received building permit approval in June 2017, was selected for its project readiness, alignment with the city’s equity goals, ability to leverage city funds, new partnerships and philanthropic incentives, and innovation in sustainable materials and earthquake resilience.
From the Portland Patch: https://patch.com/oregon/portland/portland-awarded-6-million-construct-affordable-housing-unit
by Web Editor | Oct 11, 2017 | News
As a crane lowered a glulam beam and construction workers on either end deftly guided it into connection with two upright wooden columns, a tour group member shook his head and said, “It’s like Lincoln Logs.”
Kind of. Which may in part explain some of the attraction of builders and designers to the potential use of strong, precisely engineered, carbon-storing wood beams, columns, wall panels and floor decking. As Chris Evans, a Swinerton Builders project manager put it, wood is the first building material people use to make the forts, homes and hideouts of childhood.
These days, builders and designers are joining mill owners, university researchers and policy makers in taking a fresh look at advanced wood products, “mass timbers” and what’s come to be called “tall wood” design. Advocates believe it can replace concrete and steel in mid- to even high-rise buildings, and provide an economic jolt to rural Oregon in terms of forest management and mill jobs.
In Hillsboro, Evans and Swinerton Builders are overseeing construction of the largest known U.S. building to date that uses cross-laminated timber, or CLT, for flooring, and glulam posts and beams. The Oregon headquarters of First Tech Credit Union will be five stories high and have 156,000 square feet of office space. Swinerton Builders is the general contractor.
Another tall wood building planned for Portland, called Framework, will be 12 stories high and will have five floors of affordable housing. That project was awarded a $1.5 million federal design competition grant to help with seismic and fire testing and certification.
From Capital Press: https://www.capitalpress.com/Oregon/20171005/nations-largest-mass-timber-building-under-construction-in-oregon
by Web Editor | Aug 21, 2017 | News
Ever since the 10-story Home Insurance Building in Chicago was called the first “skyscraper” in 1885, architects have been striving to create ever-taller buildings. Ten stories quickly became 20, 20 became 50, and on and on. In 2009 the Burj Khalifa in Dubai became the world’s tallest building, with its 154 floors towering above ground level.
So why is the mayor of Portland, Oregon, calling a modest 12-story tower set for completion there next year “a true technological and entrepreneurial achievement?” It’s not the affordable housing the building affords, nor its dozens of bike racks or even the roof farm that has Ted Wheeler gushing. It’s that the Framework apartment building will be made almost entirely of wood.
Once completed, Framework will be America’s tallest wooden building and its first “plyscraper” — a high-rise building built with panels made of cross-laminated timber (CLT). These modular sheets are made from cheap, sustainable softwood that are glued or pinned together in layers — a bit like super-strong, super-thick plywood.
While the raw material might vary in quality, CLT (also known as mass timber) is engineered to be stronger than concrete. CLT panels resist earthquakes and even fire, charring instead of catching alight like the lumber in typical homes.
Plyscrapers can be bolted together in days, and they require a fraction of the labor use to erect traditional steel-and-concrete high-rises. “You don’t need an experienced master carpenter to do this,” says Casey Malmquist, founder of Columbia Falls, Montana-based SmartLam, one of only two CLT manufacturers in the U.S. “It literally goes together like Legos.”
From NBC News: https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/tech/eco-friendly-plyscrapers-are-rise-here-s-why-ncna793346
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
