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 | Oct 7, 2016 | News
If the vast potential of timber construction isn’t obvious, a new exhibit at Washington D.C.’s National Building Museum aims to clear things up. Running through May 2017, the USDA-sponsored Timber City is drawing attention to the recent boom in a worldwide movement toward timber construction.
It’s opening up a new market that has been turning the mills at a growing number of wood products companies, including Montreal’s Nordic Structures, Sauter Timber in Rockwood, Tennessee, and D.R. Johnson.
Oregon-based D.R. Johnson Wood Innovations, a subsidiary of D.R. Johnson, specializes in the manufacture of cross-laminated timber (CLT) and glue-laminated beams from Douglas fir and Alaskan yellow cedar. They’re the first U.S. company to receive APA/ANSI certification to manufacture structural CLT panels – and they hope to help grow the U.S. market.
D.R. Johnson is one of only three North American companies certified by the Engineered Wood Association to construct CLT for use in buildings. The 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.
D.R. Johnson says the system for constructing CLT involves assembling prefabricated parts, speeding construction, and paring labor costs. The company partnered with wood processor manufacturer USNR to build a custom panel press for CLT.
From Woodworking Network: https://www.woodworkingnetwork.com/events-contests/event-coverage/timber-construction-exhibition-shines-light-industry
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
by Web Editor | Jun 1, 2016 | News
The long awaited news that Olympic Panel Products in Shelton would be closing down has finally come.
The State Employment Security Department released a layoff notice the 217 employees will be out of work starting on July 22. The news was originally announced in March of 2015, when notice came that forest products company Swanson Group Manufacturing LLC purchased the assets of Olympic Panel Products and would be moving operations to a new state-of-the-art facility in Springfield, Ore.
Cheryl Fambles, CEO of Pacific Mountain WorkForce Development Council (PMWDC), said the transition process will look a lot like what happened with the Simpson Lumber mill closure, which took place right next door and resulted in about 275 layoffs. The only difference is that employees may have an even harder time finding work closer to home. “(Simpson Lumber and Olympic Panel Products) are located side by side,” Fambles said. “The impacts in the community are cumulative.”
Before taking action, Fambles continued, PMWDC will talk to employees and evaluate to find out their plans — whether they are relocating, retiring or need retraining. Then, the organization will look for funding, including Trade Act Assistance dollars, which aids workers who lose their jobs due to international competition.
From there, Fambles said, PMWDC will continue operating the transition center in Shelton — originally erected to help Simpson workers — and hire on new peer advisors from Olympic Panel Products. That will help with paperwork, resumes, interview skills, finding a job, finding a school and other forms of assistance.
From Business Examiner: https://www.businessexaminer.com/blog/May-2016/Olympic-Panel-Products-closing-soon-with-217-layoffs/
by Web Editor | Jul 10, 2015 | News
Oregon and southwest Washington make up one of 12 new regions accepted into the Investing in Manufacturing Communities Partnership initiative. The program is a federal effort to increase domestic manufacturing by “supporting the development of coordinated, long-term economic development strategies in communities,” according to Business Oregon.
The U.S. Department of Commerce selected the regions based on competitive proposals. The first 12 regions were accepted last year and the Pacific Northwest was not among them. U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Prtizker said the initiative is critical to the administration’s efforts. “To support American manufacturing, create good paying jobs and spur sustainable growth across our country,” she said. She said the designation is an important positive signal to potential investors in the Northwest and other parts of the country.
The Pacific Northwest Partnership Region will focus on reviving and modernizing the timber industry. Cross-laminated timbers (CLT), a type of cross-hatched wood product, are as strong as steel or concrete and will be manufactured locally under the program.
On its website, Business Oregon says cross-laminated timbers have “significantly lower environmental impact, sequesters carbon and yet meets the same fire and safety code regulations as concrete and steel.” The new type of wood can even be used to frame skyscrapers.
From Jefferson Public Radio: https://ijpr.org/post/timber-manufacturing-increase-pacific-northwest
