Optimism
set the tone and the thinking was green.
That
could be the takeaway from a recent Nortwest Montana gathering of
representatives from various facets of the timber industry—including logging,
milling, finished wood producers and federal and state forest managers.
The
main focus at a conference in Columbia Falls, MT, was the growing interest in
cross laminated timber, or CLT, just emerging from infancy in the United States
but already well-established in Europe and with a substantial track record in
Canada.
Billed
as the Montana Mass Timber Rising conference, the conclave was conveniently timed
with the Western Governors Conference held in nearby Whitefish that touched on
national forest and rangeland issues, and a keynote address by local native Ryan
Zinke, now heading the Department of the Interior.
Columbia
Falls was also a logical choice for any venue addressing the CLT industry. It’s
the home of SmartLam, www.smartlam.com the
nation’s first and largest CLT producer going back to its founding in 2012. And the company
is now poised to increase current 800,000 annual board feet production with a new facility in its hometown while eyeing expansion to timber-rich wood “baskets” of the Northeast and Southeast.
The
CLT “movement,” as it could aptly be called, is gaining steam not only within
the traditional wood products chain but also from the greenest conservation and
environmental groups that acquire private timberland, often to remove it from
the harvest inventory.
Notably
among the conservation groups is Seattle-based Forterra, http://forterra.org/ which has sponsored conferences
and published studies touting CLT as a sustainable
construction method for taller urban buildings, schools and other commercial structures.
Forterra and other conservation-minded groups have viewed CLT as a way to revive struggling, rural timber towns
with a new sustainable building method.
CLT
is typically manufactured from 2 x 6 and 8-inch finished timber, glued in
layers of three to as many as nine layers positioned at right angles, then
compressed on large presses.
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| CLT simplified |
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| CLT finger joints for linear connection |
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| FPInnovations&Binational Softwood Lumber Council |
The
finished product has gained credibility for its structural integrity, fire
resistance and the post-harvest ability to continue absorption of carbon — with some studies
showing it reduces the carbon footprint of conventional concrete and steel
construction by as much as 75%. Perhaps
counterintuitive, CLT and other mass timber, as the category is described,
tends to burn slower and maintain strength longer compared to steel and
concrete.
Also cited as an environmental factor, CLT is produced from smaller diameter trees with shorter growing times as a renewal resource.
Joining
SmartLam as the only other CLT producer in the states is DR Johnson http://oregonclt.com/ of Riddle, OR. Although lagging SmartLam in
longevity, Johnson moved quickly to gain certification from building standards
organizations to manufacture CLT for structural application.
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| SmartLam plant Columbia Falls |
In its early years SmartLam concentrated on industrial matting for
equipment, roads and bridges with a heavy concentration in the petroleum
industry. The plan was to enter the “architectural CLT” market later. But when
the oil market faltered the company made an earlier move into the designer-builder
category.
Addressing
the comparison with Johnson, SmartLam founding principal and CEO Casey
Malmquist recalled his company had set out to be the “epicenter” for CLT in the
nation, conceding that, to date, “Oregon has done a really good job of that.”
The
DR Johnson plant has provided CLT to several multi-story projects either
completed, under construction or on the drawing board in Portland, where
environmental consciousness and sustainability are largely ingrained in
business and the public.
Down
the Interstate-5 corridor from Portland, the City of Springfield is preparing
to build a several-story
parking garage with CLT in an industrial redevelopment area along the Willamette River.
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| DR Johnson CLT machinery |
But
with SmartLam’s expansion plans and recent certification as a producer of
structural panels for multi-floor buildings the company is likely poised to
maintain its lead in total output that could quadruple its current production while
penetrating new national and international markets.
As
the earliest and largest CLT producer,“We’re the front runner and we want to
stay there,” Malmquist emphasized in speaking to the mass timber conference.
SmartLam
and other CLT producers must meet the wood industry’s ANSI/APA PRG 320
standards for structural timber from spruce, pine and fir. The Sustainable
Forest Institute also sets a measure for “chain of custody” to assure
sustainability from standing trees through harvest and timber production.
Emphasizing
the potential of CLT Malmquist’s opinion is, “I think the future of this
product is what we don’t know.”
Malmquist
acknowledges he is a firm believer in climate change, and gives little credit
to those who debate the causes. To do so is analogous to firemen arriving at a
blaze and arguing about who started it before doing anything, he believes.
CLT
is one product that will help confront climate change while providing an
economic benefit to timber-dependent communities, by Malmquist’s reasoning.
To
highlight that more knowledge of CLT’s attributes will spread throughout the timber industry, the Montana conference included Oregon panelists, among them
Springfield Mayor Christine Lundberg, Iain MacDonald of Oregon State
University’s Tallwood Design Institute, Tim Locke, director of forest products
at the Oregon Forest Resource Institute, as well as Bill Parsons of
Woodworks.org and Bill Tobin of Lendlease, one of the world’s largest
construction management companies.
Mayor
Lundberg was recognized by several panelists for her forward thinking to
promote CLT for the city’s new parking garage. The idea was formed after she
discovered a National Geographic article prominently mentioning Michael Green,
a long-time Canadian CLT proponent whose TED talks on the subject have
galvanized others, among them a principal in the family that owns the DR Johnson mill in
Oregon.
“It
all came about because of Michael Green and an article in National Geographic,”
Lundberg said.
Lundberg
thought a CLT demonstration project such as the new parking garage would
connect Springfield to its timber heritage, a town in which everybody “smelled
like wood” at one time. After two attempts the city was awarded an Investing in
Manufacturing Communities Partnership grant that jump started the design
effort.
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| Springfield garage rendering-SRG architects |
There
are now partnerships with the University of Oregon and a $155,000 grant
resulting from the 2016 Mass Timber Conference in Portland that have turned the project
into a “research facility in itself.”
The
Springfield school system is also considering CLT construction for new middle
schools, and classroom programs have been started to interest students in wood,
its history and use in their community.
Lundberg
acknowledges that cutting trees is not always popular in green-leaning Oregon.
“I
come from a state where they are more likely to hug a tree than cut it down,”
she observes.
But
the sustainability characteristic of CLT seems to be a connecting factor to
establish common ground for the historic wood harvest-production forces and
conservation organizations.
Oregon’s
position as the country’s leader in CLT/mass timber buildings in design or
under construction has been buttressed by working relationships and support including
state agencies, along with its two major universities and forest industry
groups.
There are at least a half-dozen Portland-area multi-story buildings in planning or construction, or completed. Among these are Albina, Hudson, the Radiator Building, 38 Davis, Carbon 12 and Framework, the last in that list which could become the tallest CLT building in the country when occupied.
Framework was awarded a $1.5 million grant from the US Department of Agriculture's Tall Wood Design competition, along with a 10-story condo project in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City.
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| Framework in Portland now under construction |
As
spotted owl issues slammed the wood industry, in 1991 state legislation created
the Oregon Forest Resource Institute http://oregonforests.org/
which has received public and industry funding. By gubernatorial executive
order the institute is now charged with developing programs to encourge use of
wood, explained OFRI communications director Timm Locke.
The
Oregon Forest Practices Act requires state projects employ “responsibly sourced
wood” that meets environmental LEED standards. Today there are two capital projects,
at Western Oregon University and the Oregon State Forestry complex, now under
construction with CLT, Locke noted.
Recognizing
that local codes may not adequately reflect new building technology,
the state has the authority to move the permitting process along for projects
such as CLT.
The institute, Locke explained,
through its Wood Products Working Group promotes and creates “buzz” around wood
construction in Oregon, as examples the new Albina CLT project in Portland, industry
conferences and other activities.
Expansion
of CLT building could leap in Oregon with passage of $3 billion in school
construction bonds in November of 2016 and May of 2017.
“I
can virtually guarantee you that there are going to be new schools built out of
wood in Oregon,” Locke added.
With the CLT market now gauged at more than 6 million board feet and Oregon's current position at 15% of national production, CLT could yield up to 17,300 jobs of annually, with more than 6,000 each direct and indirect and 5,000 "induced," by OFRI's calculations.
Oregon’s
Tallwood Design Institute http://tallwoodinstitute.org/
is bringing together academic resources from the University of Oregon and
Oregon State University to provide design and technical solutions for stuctural
mass timber and CLT projects.
The collaboration includes the OSU College of Forestry
and College of Engineering and the U of O department of Architecture and Allied
Arts, which unites the two state universities under the National Center for
Advanced Wood Products Manufacturing and Design at Oregon State.
Iain
McDonald, Tallwood’s associate director, pointed to British Columbia’s 2009
Wood First Act that jump started the province’s emphasis on wood construction in
hospitals, schools and government sponsored housing. The act was followed by 53
BC municipalities that passed similar rules.
As
a result the 2010 Winter Olympics skating rink was built with a glue laminated (glulam)
mass timber roof, and later the REI outdoor store.
Most
recently Brock Commons-Tallwood House student housing of the University of
British Columbia has been completed at 18 stories, combining CLT, glulam and
concrete cladding with a gypsum roof for added fire protection.
In
McDonald’s words the project and others show with mass timber, “..you don’t
have to build something that looks like a hunting lodge.”
At
Brock Commons the speed of construction, possible with CLT and mass timber
hybdrids, was evident when the prime framing contractor, “had to slow
down to let other trades catch up.” The building structural frame went up at
the rate of two floors per week.
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| Brock Commons-Tallwood House - Vancouver BC |
While
an accelerated schedule is a leading benefit of CLT there are barriers to
adoption by managers unfamiliar with the process, incuding cost uncertainties,
design technical requirements and the required adaptation to new construction
skills, McDonald noted.
The
demand in Oregon to learn more and apply CLT to actual construction was
reinforced by Bill Parsons of Boise-based Woodworks, http://www.woodworks.org/ dedicated to
providing technical assistance on non-residential and multi-family wood
construction. Woodworks is funded by the national Forest Service, Softwood
Board and Forest Innovation Investment.
Parsons
said Woodworks’ Oregon field representative, Ethan Martin is in high demand for project consultation.
Other requests are coming out of San Francisco, Vancouver, BC and elsewhere.
The
2013 national CLT symposium in Seattle was instrumental in stimulating
interest, Parsons said. In 2015 Woodworks had 19 requests for CLT technical
assistance, which jumped to 91 in 2016, with 30 of those involving “tallwood”
multi-story buildings.
By
Woodworks estimate there is the potential for 800 million square feet of
non-residential construction in the United States that could be built with
CLT, prompting the organization to establish an expanding
database of knowledgeable consultants.
In
Montana, CLT construction is just finding its legs although SmartLam is
supplying its finished product for projects as far away as Switzerland and the
Eastern US.
Brian
Caldwell of Think Tank Design, http://thinktankarchitects.com/
is under construction in Bozeman with his design of a 4-story, 29-room hotel expansion using CLT. Convincing Bozeman officials of CLT’s fire retarding capability was
difficult.
“I
had to spend $30,000 to prove that wood in Bozeman burns at the same rate as
wood in Germany,” Caldwell joked. “It’s
important to educate municipal building officials.”
Bringing
the discussion down to the first link in the CLT chain, Gordy Sanders,
resource manager for Seely’s Pyramid Mountain Lumber emphasized that,
“everything revolves around timber supply.” Unlike Oregon’s massive standing timberland
inventory, Montana mills sometimes import logs from other states
including Idaho and even Wyoming, he said.
Much
potential timber harvest on federal land is held up in environmental litigation, Sanders noted,
estimating that 1,500 jobs and five harvest projects are affected currently in
Montana by a single court decision.
To
raise the profile for CLT construction in Montana newly-named University of
Montana School of Forestry dean Tom DeLuca described the effort to build a new
resources building with CLT. The project will combine the new building with
refurbishing an existing facility, funded intially with an $18 million gift
from the WA Franke foundation and a goal of raising $45-$60 million depending
on final plans.
The
speed and efficiency of CLT construction was dramatized at the Montana
conference by Bill Tobin of major international contruction management company,
Lendlease, http://www.lendlease.com/us/
,Australian headquartered with its US management
office in Nashville.
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| Candlewood Suites-Redstone Arsenal |
Lendlease,
working under a 50-year agreement with the US Army to build hotels at federal
facilities, recently completed a 4-story, 92 room hotel at Redstone Arsenal in
Alabama with 1,200 prefabricated CLT panels. Start to finish on site the hotel
was ready for occupancy in 10 weeks with a crew of only 10 workers, many newcomers
to CLT construction. That compares to typical 14-20 weeks and 40-60 people for
a similar building, Tobin emphasized.
Lendlease
views CLT as responding to labor shortages in the construction industry by
requiring fewer onsite skilled workers.
Of
special note with the Redstone project, to meet military-grade security requirements
the hotel was designed to withstand internal and external bomb blasts, using
steel beams to connect wood panels.
By
the numbers, the company estimates the Redstone CLT project was delivered 37%
faster with 43% fewer workers, and was 14% larger than a similar building, with 30% greater energy efficiency.
As
for price, it’s difficult to compare to similar commercial projects with less
stringent design and construction standards than the military, he said. Tobin believes the "sweet spot" for CLT will be buildings in the six to 12 floor range.
Looking
ahead Tobin cited the challenge of bringing CLT into mainstream construction at scale to compete
with concrete and steel, which has, “..had 100 years. CLT is trying to cram 100
years into five.”
Relative
cost of CLT measured against established conventional construction could
continue to be an issue in these early stages. In Tobin’s opinion the CLT
effort will need a coalition of supporting interests.
“Don’t
expect government architects or engineers to do it all. You have to have
cooperation to move it ahead .”
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*Forest Business Network http://www.forestbusinessnetwork.com based in Missoula, MT was primarily instrumental in organizing timber industry participants for the Columbia Falls conference.
