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
by Web Editor | Feb 3, 2017 | News
For centuries, wood was civilization’s primary construction material, but as the use of concrete, glass and steel grew, wood was largely relegated to flooring and interior paneling.
An exhibition at the National Building Museum in Washington challenges that narrow use. It suggests that tomorrow’s buildings will or should be constructed of wood. The exhibition, “Timber City,” highlights the wide range of benefits offered by cutting-edge methods of timber construction, showing that wood is a modern, strong and versatile material.
The show highlights the two winners of the Tall Wood Building Prize, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. “One in New York City and one in Portland, Oregon, are two premier cross-laminated (engineered, pre-fabricated) timber buildings going up right now,” said the exhibition’s curator, Susan Piedmont-Palladino. “They’re similar structures. Both buildings are using this material … in slightly different ways, but the goal is to build right in the middle of the city.”
And that’s what makes timber the perfect choice in a busy district like New York’s Manhattan, where construction speed and efficiency are vital. “Buildings go up very quickly. The materials for the building — the walls and the floors and the ceilings — are manufactured off-site. They come on a truck, pre-fabricated,” Piedmont-Palladino said. “So a work crew armed with power screwdrivers can basically assemble the building extremely quickly. There’s no long-term curing of concrete” needed.
Information panels in the exhibition explain that concrete manufacturing is the world’s third-largest source of greenhouse gases, and that harvesting timber — a renewable resource — has a lower environmental cost than mining the materials needed to make steel and concrete.
From VOANews.com: https://www.voanews.com/a/museum-cross-laminated-wood-building-material/3697202.html
by Web Editor | Jan 4, 2017 | News
When the 12-story Framework building planned at Portland’s Northwest 10th Avenue and Glisan Street is complete, it may look to passers-by like any other Pearl District condo tower.
But it will hold a special distinction in the sustainable building world: the nation’s tallest building made primarily from mass timber (long pieces of timber, glue-laminated together).
Designers and engineers across the country are chasing an innovative style of mass timber construction pioneered in Europe, which they believe will go a long way to reduce the carbon footprint of large buildings.
The breakthrough came with the development of cross-laminated timber or CLT: Large, layered flat panels used as floors and walls (rather than just beams as vertical posts).
As Oregon moves on multiple fronts to take the national lead in all-wood construction for tall buildings, Portland State University stepped up early to do basic research. PSU won a three-year, $400,000 National Science Foundation grant to study two aspects of mass timber construction: its sustainability and how well it resists earthquakes.
From Sustainable Life: https://pamplinmedia.com/sl/337694-214716-psu-tests-new-green-woods-seismic-strength
by Web Editor | Dec 9, 2016 | News
Oregon’s Rosboro Announces Sale Of Wood Products Plants
Wood products manufacturer Rosboro of Springfield on Tuesday announced that it has sold its manufacturing business to Wynnchurch Capital, an Illinois-based investment firm. The sale for an undisclosed amount involves seven manufacturing plants in Oregon, including Rosboro’s main facility at South 28th and Main streets in Springfield.
Wynnchurch Capital, based in Rosemont, Ill., describes itself as a “value-oriented, operationally focused private equity firm that specializes in complex transactions in the U.S. and Canada.”
Last month, Rosboro announced that it had sold its 95,000 acres of timberlands to an investment group managed by Campbell Global, a Portland-based investment firm. Rosboro also declined to disclose the sale price of that deal. Wynnchurch Capital owns 19 companies, according to its website, including manufacturing, building materials and transportation firms.
In a joint press release with Rosboro, Wynnchurch Partner Ian Kirson said, “We are excited to partner with the management team of Rosboro to continue the company’s track record of customer service, quality and innovation. Rosboro has a bright future, and we look forward to supporting the company’s growth.”
Rosboro Chief Executive Scott Nelson said, “Wynnchurch has an outstanding reputation for supporting growth and providing management teams with strategic guidance that fits perfectly into the company’s focus for the future.”
From The Register-Guard
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by Web Editor | Jul 27, 2016 | News
Vancouver-based real estate developer PortLiving and world-renowned Japanese architect Shigeru Ban have unveiled plans for an upcoming hybrid timber structure said to be the tallest in the world. If so, this would mean it will be higher than other CLT wood structures, such as the 34-story design planned for Stockholm.
The residential high-rise Terrace house, which will be located in Vancouver’s Coal Harbor neighborhood, may set a new standard for urban luxury in design, sustainability and engineering innovation. The high-rise will feature a cross-laminated timber frame supported by a concrete and steel core. Wood for the project will be locally sourced from British Columbia, minimizing its carbon footprint.
Cross-laminated timber has been gaining popularity as of late, due to its lightness, sustainability, and ease of use. Planks of timber are glued and orientated at 90 degrees to each other, and are then crosslaid in layers. Those pieces are then shipped to construction sites and can be assembled by just a few workers, even for large buildings.
Its use in tall wooden buildings has also been growing. London, Stockholm, and Quebec are just a few of the cities who either already have large timber towers or have one in the works. Recent plans include a Swedish firm’s 436 ft. residential wood skyscraper in Stockholm, while a 12-story mixed wood high-rise is planned for construction in Portland, Oregon.
Building codes are being adjusted in Oregon and Washington State to permit the tall wood structures. But CLT hasn’t gone without opposition.
From Woodworking Network: https://www.woodworkingnetwork.com/news/woodworking-industry-news/canadian-high-rise-will-be-tallest-timber-structure-world?ss=news,news,woodworking_industry_news,news,almanac_market_data,news
