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Ben Kaiser, owner and principal of Kaiser Group + Path Architecture, believes the building industry can play a big role in reducing carbon emissions and combating global climate change by adopting mass-timber construction. So the multidisciplinary firm behind Carbon12, an eight-story mixed-use building in North/Northeast Portland that remains the tallest one in the U.S. made of mass timber, has decided to share its knowledge and experience.

Kaiser + Path is making available online all drawings, technical specifications and engineering documents related to Carbon12 at .

The obvious question is why?

鈥淪ometimes I ask myself the same question,鈥� Kaiser said. 鈥淚t’s interesting because it’s such a new world, the world of mass timber, that we’d like more people to join us in the undertaking. We’re convinced it’s the correct path forward for the environment, but just us doing it by ourselves in Portland is not going to make that big of an impact. So we really feel the more people who can come and join us and build momentum, the better it will be for the environment and the timber industry in the Northwest.鈥�

Portland firm Hacker is another early adopter of mass-timber construction, and recently moved into its new headquarters in District Office 鈥� a six-story, mass-timber office building in the Buckman neighborhood. Corey Martin, a Hacker principal, said he’s not particularly surprised by the decision by Kaiser + Path to release project documents.

鈥淭he mass timber movement is bringing together people and professionals in our world in ways that other things haven’t,鈥� Martin said, 鈥渂ecause the innovation and change in what’s possible is literally changing every minute as we work in real time. There’s a lot of mutual benefit for us to share. It’s like an open-source community that we have, so it’s fitting in with that.鈥�

Carbon12, completed in 2018, took the industry by storm and generated substantial press for Kaiser + Path. The project team worked with city and state officials to circumvent restrictive codes limiting heights of wood buildings. Carbon12, at 85 feet, became the tallest building in the country with cross-laminated timber, glulam beams and columns, and other mass-timber elements.

鈥淲e were blown away by all the ways mass timber keeps improving the conversations,鈥� Kaiser said. 鈥淲e were glad we broke through the 65-foot height limit for wood; we now have a new precedent of 85 feet, and that was a big change for the United States.鈥�

The project team knew it was the right path forward, Kaiser said. But additional benefits were found along the way. The project turned into a proving ground for mass timber, thanks to structural testing requirements pushed by the city and state.

鈥淲e kept discovering great things about the mass-timber products,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hese are far superior in seismic events. These buildings are just 30 percent the weight of a concrete building, and you can imagine as you go higher, 70 percent less mass is a lot easier to restrain with regard to lateral forces.鈥�

Mass-timber buildings also impact the foundation less, allowing their use on formerly polluted sites or brownfield sites.

鈥淐arbon sequestration is why we got into it,鈥� Kaiser said. 鈥淏ut the modularity, seismic superiority and the aesthetics all kept improving the conversation for us.鈥�

Taylor Cabot, now a Swinerton Mass Timber project manager, served in that role for Kaiser + Path during the Carbon12 project.

鈥�(Carbon 12) was built before codes, so we went pretty much where we wanted to go with it,鈥� she said during a recent Women in Construction Week event. 鈥淭here was no code path forward, and the city said, 鈥楾his is beyond our scope.’鈥�

The state of Oregon, however, provided more regulatory framework. The Oregon Building Codes Division was in the process of creating a method for reviewing cross-laminated-timber buildings for local jurisdictions and wound up collaborating with the city of Portland’s structural engineer, fire marshal and life-safety reviewer.

The result was a unique review process wherein the city was responsible for aspects of the building outside of the physical structure, while the state reviewed structural and fire and life safety elements.

鈥淭he good news is we took a pretty prescriptive path,鈥� Cabot said. 鈥淚t really allowed us to hear rumors or feel the feel of people getting nervous about what they were seeing and immediately addressing them. We’re still building a lot of buildings in Type III, but we will all be moving very quickly to Type IV, which has a lot of advantages and will speed up the process. I’m excited because this will allow projects to move through the permitting process a lot faster.鈥�

The stream of industry inquiries and requests for information about Carbon12 also played a role in the decision to open it up for examination. Kaiser estimated the firm has given more than 200 tours of the building.

鈥淭hat’s the exciting thing,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e’ve joined a like-minded community of folks internationally. If we were doing strip malls in Phoenix, no one would be calling us. But since we’re doing something innovative and exciting, we’re getting calls and visits from people around the world. That’s one of the nicest outcomes we hadn’t planned for.鈥�

Martin wholeheartedly agrees.

鈥淲e all share the same consultants, the same engineers 鈥� there’s a lot of cross-pollination there,鈥� he said. 鈥淪tructural systems weren’t a thing we all looked at as a point of innovation for a long time in normal projects. But now, the structural system is this big question mark and this big point of conversation, so it’s really fun. That’s why we’re all wanting to share stuff.鈥�