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As mass timber has gained appeal within the building industry, project teams have largely been addressing challenges as they arise. But the formation of a group of engineering, construction, architecture and fabrication firms could soon change that.

The REACTS (Research on Engineering, Architecture and Construction of Timber Structures) Consortium will begin looking at the most pressing questions about mass timber.

鈥淚t’s about a decision-making process to choose work and testing that will help innovate code or eliminate barriers and develop high-performance products,鈥� said Iain Macdonald, director of the Corvallis-based Tallwood Design Institute.

The institute is comprised of members of Oregon State University‘s colleges of engineering and forestry and the University of Oregon‘s college of design. There on the OSU campus the REACTS Consortium will devise new subjects of research and carry out physical experiments at the Emmerson Advanced Wood Products Laboratory, which opened in 2019.

鈥淭he cooperative model is not uncommon in universities where you have outside stakeholders who contribute resources so they can get certain types of research done,鈥� Macdonald said. 鈥淲e’ve always done research that has heavy input from industry; we want research that has impact in the medium term, not blue-sky research necessarily.鈥�

There are 16 firms presently involved in the consortium, which is still in the process of determining which issues it will focus on. More companies could join in the future, but for now the idea is to keep the group small and nimble.

鈥淲e’ve been talking in earnest over the last 15 months,鈥� Macdonald said. 鈥淲e talked with five or six companies in Portland we dealt with often and kicked around the idea to see who would be interested and what would work.鈥�

There’s a three-tier structure under which companies pay different dues to help fund research. Other funding will come from state and federal agencies, including the U.S. Forest Service.

鈥淭he general philosophy is no matter what level member you are,鈥� Macdonald said, 鈥測ou have the ability to propose ideas and critique others.鈥�

Ethan Martin, an associate with DCI Engineers of Portland, has been involved with research at OSU for a number of years. The consortium will focus largely on structural issues, including composite design involving mass timber and concrete or other combinations of materials, he said.

鈥淭his whole tall mass timber thing kind of came out of the blue for the wood industry,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t wasn’t a coordinated effort by any means, and now it is.鈥�

Even with 2021 updates to the International Building Code accounting for mass-timber structures, Martin said, 鈥渢ons of questions鈥� still exist.

鈥淢ass timber is in its infancy,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he idea behind the Tallwood Design Institute and REACTS is, again, we develop this code language for tall buildings and the framework is there. But the devil is in the details and a lot of the details have not been worked out.鈥�

For Martin and others, however, there is satisfaction in figuring out those details.

鈥淲hat else needs to be tested?鈥� he asked. 鈥淒rift? Composite design? Stuff that is really going to be useful to keep mass-timber buildings rolling.鈥�

Another issue that needs to be fleshed out is mass timber’s acoustic properties, said Graham Montgomery, technical director for Swinerton and its new Portland-based fabrication facility.

鈥淚t will definitely benefit what we bring to the table with jurisdictions and help everybody feel more comfortable with things because we’re actually testing these items,鈥� Montgomery said.

Jonathan Heppner, a principal at Lever Architecture, the firm that designed the 12-story Framework mass-timber project that was canceled in 2017, said that one and others since have shown the need for a more coordinated approach within the industry. He likened the effort to a mobile phone, for which a variety of firms are responsible for the hardware, software and network needed to make it functional. Only by working together can the building industry successfully solve the outstanding issues around mass timber, he said.

鈥淲e’re just getting started,鈥� Heppner said. 鈥淏ut ideally the consortium as a group can hit what we feel are the most targeted approaches to any of those topics and then maybe break out as groups and work out the research specific to those topics.鈥�

Levi Huffman, technical director at DR Johnson, a Riddle-based fabricator of cross-laminated timber panels, agreed.

鈥淲e’ve grown with the market and have a sense there are challenges that we still have to overcome,鈥� he said. 鈥淎ny barriers, whether a structural design question or acoustics or sustainability for developers 鈥� those are items that come up that we need answers to. The thing with the REACTS Consortium is we can quickly identify the hurdles out there that we need to jump over.鈥�

The Tallwood Design Institute, Huffman added, provides potentially costly resources that individual companies don’t have.

鈥淎ny time we have barriers that are broken down that make it easier for developers to develop a building, there are going to be more of them built and the demand for mass timber will go up,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t’s going to help grow the industry, break down barriers and keep this mass-timber movement going forward.鈥�

Just one example of this, Heppner said, came up during the Framework project. The proposal for seismic resilience featured a rocking wall with an entirely exposed wood finish. A brace frame perhaps could have been superior, he said, but using mass timber to construct such elements hadn’t been done before.

鈥淚f you had something that was more of a brace frame solution it will have different implications for performance and for the user,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t’s a technology rather than a solution, and you’re just trying to find the best use of that. You want a lot of potential options to fit it into different scenarios that would come up.鈥�

That kind of experimentation is exactly what the consortium is designed to tackle.

鈥淪ome of it really comes down to what will the jurisdiction allow,鈥� Martin said. 鈥淭hat’s another opportunity for REACTS. We can design something, but if it’s not in the code, how does the building official know to accept it or not accept it? We’ve come up with some really cool stuff in California, but the official said, 鈥榊eah, I see what you’re doing, but I don’t understand it and know how to approve it.’

鈥淭hat’s one of the things REACTS will be able to help with also. When we come up with an idea that is valid, then we just need testing to prove it.鈥�

Consortium members will have access to certain proprietary information and research results that come out of the effort. But the intent is to produce data that any firm can draw upon in the future, Macdonald said.

鈥淲e’ll see how it goes,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e’re not drawing a line under it. Some of these cooperatives have gone on for years and years, or basically as long as it’s required. There’s a lot of catch-up to do to generate the data and know-how for wood that we already have for concrete and steel. We’re still at the beginning of what mass timber can do.鈥�

REACTS Consortium industry members

Gold level

Swinerton

Silver level

KPFF Consulting Engineers

Bronze level

Kaiser + Path

StructureCraft

MTC Solutions

DCI Engineers

SRG Partnership

U.S. Forest Service

Rothoblaas

MiTek

Odeh Engineers

DR Johnson

Katerra

Lever Architecture

Aspect Structural Engineers

Holmes Structures