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Oregon has issued new building codes for mass-timber construction, becoming the first state in the nation to provide an alternate path to regulating tall wood buildings.

The new rules come as more developers consider building with cross-laminated timber (CLT). State officials and timber advocates have strongly backed the material in an effort to support Oregon’s multibillion-dollar timber industry.

The , as the new code is formally known, was finalized Aug. 8. The code is drawn from the 2021 International Building Code, said Richard Rogers, chief building official with the Oregon Building Codes Division.

For the first time, the new code allows construction of tall wood structures in the state. Previously, wood buildings could not be more than six stories tall.

鈥淵ou can take this to any jurisdiction in the state, and (they) have to accept it,鈥� Rogers said. 鈥淪ubject to these limitations, everybody can build using mass timber.鈥�

The code includes requirements for sprinklers and fire resistance. Building proposals are still subject to local zoning and design requirements.

The Statewide Alternate Method still requires a concrete masonry steel core to take up lateral loads.

鈥淲e thought it was a good, measured step allowing the use of the product,鈥� Rogers said.

A number of projects in the Portland-metro area are using CLT. They include the First Tech Credit Union building in Hillsboro and the District Office project from Beam Development and Urban Development + Partners in Portland’s Central Eastside.

Several CLT buildings have already opened in Portland, including Carbon 12 and Albina Yard.

But CLT has also run into serious problems. A number of CLT panels at Oregon State University’s Peavy Hall project were found to have construction defects, forcing delays. The defects were found after a subfloor collapsed during construction.

Those panels were manufactured by D.R. Johnson, a manufacturer in southern Oregon.

鈥淒.R. Johnson acknowledged the problem,鈥� said Ken Bland, vice president for codes and regulations for the American Wood Council, a trade group of wood products manufacturers. 鈥淭hey identified the place in their manufacturing process that was improper. They fixed it. I think it does underscore the need for the strict quality control standards that are in place.鈥�

The CLT subfloor collapse in Corvallis didn’t influence the state codes, Rogers said.

鈥淲e haven’t changed anything in direct response to that incident,鈥� he said.

CLT’s momentum hit another bump in the road when development of Framework 鈥� a planned 12-story CLT building in the Pearl District 鈥� halted suddenly. The developer, Project^, announced in July the project was being put on hold indefinitely. Project^ blamed escalating construction costs, fluctuating tax-credit markets and inflation. The project was heavily subsidized with various grants.

The new approval process should clear the path for future proposals, Bland said.

鈥淟ike any new technology that’s coming online, it’s a matter of volume, and hopefully the Statewide Alternate Method will open the door for more projects, which will increase production and all of that,鈥� he said.