Montana conference focuses on building green with CLT: Oregon in spotlight as leader in mass timber building

            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.

CLT simplified

CLT finger joints for linear connection

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.

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.

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.

CLT: A new building method makes gains in the Northwest

            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.

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.

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.

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.

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.