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 | Sep 22, 2017 | News
The production of cross-laminated timber, or CLT, has the potential to create significant job growth in the Pacific Northwest, according to a study published in July 2017 by Oregon BEST, a Portland-based nonprofit.
CLT is made of layers of glued 2-inch-thick dimensional wood crossing over each other at a 90-degree angle, creating a strong panel that can be used in tall buildings.
The 110-page study, “Advanced Wood Product Manufacturing Study for Cross-Laminated Timber Acceleration in Oregon and SW Washington,” was funded by $120,000 from the U.S. Economic Development Administration. The study included wood products companies from across the region, including D.R. Johnson in Riddle, the first structurally certified CLT producer in the U.S.
Valerie Johnson, president of D.R. Johnson, said she agrees with the study that cross-laminated timber will increase employment for rural areas in Oregon like Douglas County. D.R. Johnson started its first glue-laminated timber, or glulam, plant in 1967 in Riddle, and began producing cross-laminated timber in fall 2015.
“The community is part of the fabric of this company. It’s not only where our employees live it’s where our families have grown up and continue to live, and making this a successful venture is really important to us,” Johnson said. “We’re giving it all we can because we really want it to be successful.”
From Treesource: https://treesource.org/news/goods-and-services/cross-laminated-timber-jobs/
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 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
