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Framework, planned in Portland’s Pearl District, has received final permit approval, clearing the way for the building to become the tallest cross-laminated timber structure in the United States.

Crews are set to begin constructing the 11-story tower from Portland developer project^ this fall at Northwest 10th Avenue and Glisan Street.

Framework will be watched nationally to see whether CLT can work in tall structures. The project is being lauded by the timber industry, which hopes to expand its market in building materials to include urban high-rises.

The project was permitted by the state of Oregon and city of Portland in a first-of-its-kind joint permitting process.

鈥淭he significance of that permit is that’s the first time a high-rise building made from timber was permitted in the United States,鈥� said Anyeley Hallova, a project^ partner who served as lead developer of Framework.

The quarter-block project is a mix of ground-floor retail space, office space and affordable rental housing. The first floor will house an Albina Community Bank branch and a caf茅 space, for which the project team is in search of a tenant.

Offices of Albina Community Bank and Beneficial State Bank will occupy the second and third floors. The fourth, fifth and sixth floors will be speculative office space. The remaining five floors will include 60 rent-restricted apartments units through a partnership with Home Forward, a government agency that provides affordable housing in Multnomah County. The apartments will be priced to be affordable at 60 percent of the Portland area’s median family income.

The apartments will be a mix of studio, one- and two-bedroom units. The residential units will be separate from the rest of the building because tax credits for low-income housing cannot be mixed with other funding sources.

The developers will seek office tenants who share a commitment to community and can provide services to the building’s tenants, Hallova said.

鈥淥ur plan marketing-wise is to market to B-corporations because this is a mission-driven project,鈥� she said.

A deck spanning about half of the rooftop will provide seating and a 鈥減eople’s garden鈥� for residents. The other half will house the building’s mechanical systems.

The project team is set to break ground this fall with Walsh Construction as general contractor. Framework will reach a height of approximately 148 feet.

Framework was aided by a $1.5 million federal grant 鈥� the prize for winning the 2015 U.S. Tall Wood Building competition sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Softwood Lumber Board and the Binational Softwood Lumber Council.

The grant, Hallova said, 鈥済ave us the resources we needed to go down the path of doing the testing we needed to do.鈥�

Project^ used the grant to run performance tests and conduct research on building a CLT structure. The design went through a battery of fire, structural and acoustic tests. Seismic tests were conducted at Oregon State and Portland State universities, resulting in post-tensioned rocking walls.

The building is designed by LEVER Architecture to rock and re-center in the event of a major earthquake. LEVER previously employed CLT for its design of Albina Yard, a 16,000-square-foot speculative office building in North Portland’s Mississippi neighborhood.

A cost estimate for Framework has not been released. Hallova said the project costs were still being tallied, but she acknowledged Framework will be more expensive than a comparable concrete-and-glass structure.

鈥淚t will have premiums associated with the new technologies associated with it, but that’s what happens when you’re doing a first-of-its-kind (building),鈥� Hallova said.

Framework will use cross-laminated timber for the floors and a lateral force resisting system. Glue-laminated timber will be used for beams and columns. The superstructure will rest on a conventionally reinforced concrete mat foundation.

鈥淭his project is considered a demonstration project for a couple of reasons,鈥� Hallova said. 鈥淥bviously, building the first wooden skyscraper is part of that.鈥�

The innovative mass-timber component has given the project a far larger profile than is typical for a 90,000-square-foot building. Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, in a prepared statement, called Framework a 鈥渢rue technical and entrepreneurial achievement.鈥�

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown pointed to the economic potential of CLT for Oregon’s timber-dependent communities.

鈥淭he Framework building shows that we can use sustainably harvested timber in a sustainable way to act as a catalyst for economic development through the creation of timber and manufacturing jobs in rural economies,鈥� Brown stated in a news release.

Framework passed Portland’s design review process in July 2016 despite some complaints from neighbors who argued the project would be out of place in the Pearl, where brick buildings and low-slung warehouses predominate. The project has no vehicle parking, but 102 bicycle spaces are provided.

It remains to be seen whether privately funded projects will take up mass-timber in any significant numbers. For developers to widely adopt the technology, it would need to become more cost-competitive with wood-framed and concrete-and-steel construction, said Tom DiChiara, a principal with Portland developer Cairn Pacific.

鈥淭here’s definitely potential,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t’s just like with any new technology, it takes a few projects to pioneer the path.鈥�

CLT may lend itself better to office and condo projects than apartments, which face stronger cost pressures and must be architecturally compartmentalized, DiChiara said.

鈥淲ith multifamily, it’s going to be a longer road, and it’s going to have to be cost-competitive with wood framing, which I don’t think it is,鈥� he said.

One benefit of CLT is the competition it could provide concrete and steel manufacturers, DiChiara said. The concrete industry has railed against CLT, questioning fire safety and other aspects of the technology.

鈥淚t’s great to see a new technology come in and disrupt the market and put some pressure on the concrete and steel guys,鈥� DiChiara said.

Framework

Location: 430 N.W. 10th Ave., Portland

Total building area: 90,000 square feet

Height: 148 feet (11 stories)

Developer: project^

Architect: LEVER Architecture

General contractor: Walsh Construction

Affordable housing provider/investor: Home Forward

Anticipated start of construction: fall 2017

Anticipated completion of construction: winter 2018

Project website: