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 | May 24, 2018 | News
Oregon’s U.S. Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden recently submitted a bipartisan letter urging the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry to include the Timber Innovation Act, which supports the development of mass timber products for building construction, in the next Farm Bill.
“We have been working to establish Oregon as a hub for mass timber products, using local timber and bolstering our forest products economy,” Merkley said. “This bill supports innovative manufacturing that creates jobs in the rural part of the state and encourages more sustainable tall wood building construction in urban parts of the state.”
“Oregon is leading the way in producing and engineering cross-laminated timber, which is revolutionizing the way our country constructs buildings,” Wyden said. “The Timber Innovation Act promotes job growth in Oregon’s timber counties and encourages the kind of Oregon entrepreneurship that can catapult our state’s economy to new heights.”
Merkley is co-leading the letter with Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID); cosigners include Sens. Wyden, James Risch (R-ID), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Steven Daines (R-MT), Roger Wicker (R-MS), Gary Peters (D-MI), Angus King (I-ME) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA).
Oregon has been at the forefront of developing mass timber products, including includes cross-laminated timber (CLT), nail laminated timber, glue laminated timber, laminated strand lumber, and laminated veneer lumber. However, U.S. building codes do not currently recognize mass timber products as official construction materials, leaving the products without a standard rating system for quality, fire resistance, earthquake resistance, and more.
Read more on this from the Klamath Falls News at https://www.klamathfallsnews.org/news/merkley-wyden-urge-bipartisan-timber-innovation-act-to-be-included-in-farm-bill.
by Web Editor | Mar 26, 2018 | News
From: Panel World Editors
Officials with Oregon State University are investigating a construction incident when a CLT panel failed in mid March at a campus building project. A 4×20 ft. panel, part of the sub flooring between the building’s second and third floors, gave way after delaminating on one end. No construction personnel were in the area and no one was injured. The panel was replaced, other sections of CLT sub flooring were shored up, and work was halted on other CLT sections.
Steve Clark, OSU vice president of marketing and university relations, said the university is bringing in an outside engineering firm to determine cause of the failure and whether any other CLT portions of construction were at risk of failure, and CLT work will resume once any issues are addressed. Ironically, the new Peavy Hall building is home to OSU’s renowned College of Forestry, and the building is designed to showcase Oregon’s forest industry and the relatively new (in North America) mass timber construction movement. However, Clark says project managers “have the utmost confidence in CLT” and plan to finish the project as designed using CLT. The project’s CLT panels are being supplied by D.R. Johnson Lumber of Riddle, Ore., which was the first U.S. producer to gain CLT certification in 2016.
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 30, 2017 | News
Oregon and Southwest Washington are well-positioned to become a manufacturing hub for cross-laminated timber — an innovative building product sometimes called “plywood on steroids” — according to a new study prepared by Oregon BEST.
The 110-page analysis found Oregon has the potential to create 2,000 to 6,100 direct jobs making cross-laminated timber and related mass timber products, which use adhesives and layered wood to create massive panels used as walls, floors and roofs, or beams. Mid-rise office and residential buildings are now being made with CLT, providing a dramatically lower carbon footprint than buildings using concrete and steel. Some high-rise projects using CLT are in the works.
Studies show CLT also cuts costs, mostly because construction takes less time. That cost advantage is projected to grow. “The cost of wood as a building material and as the raw material for CLT is expected to stay stable in the near future, while concrete and steel prices are forecast to raise with their relative energy prices and carbon costs,” the report states.
Oregon BEST, which commissioned the study along with partners, is a state-supported nonprofit that works closely with academia to nurture the state’s clean-tech industry.
CLT was developed in Europe, and European and Canadian companies got into the field before their U.S. counterparts. But D.R. Johnson became the first U.S. company certified to manufacture CLT in 2015, and is making it at its Southern Oregon plant in Riddle.
From Sustainable Life: https://pamplinmedia.com/sl/376727-262480-plywood-on-steroids-holds-great-potential-for-oregon-economy-environment
