The Oregon Concrete & Aggregate Producers Association and the Oregon chapter of the American Concrete Institute have conferred their annual Excellence in Concrete Awards on 19 projects in Oregon and Southwest Washington.

The annual awards event, in its 40th year, recognizes projects that demonstrate exemplary use of concrete in building design, construction, concrete paving and landscaping. Projects completed in Oregon and Southwest Washington in the past two years are eligible for recognition.

A total of 78 projects competed for awards in 19 categories. Entries were categorized and judged by a committee of volunteers with OCAPA and OACI, which are co-presenters of the event. Because of coronavirus-related restrictions on public gatherings, the annual awards banquet was cancelled.

This year’s winners include:

BRIDGES

Project: U.S. 97 Spanish Hollow Creek & Trout Creek Bridge
Location: Willowdale
Owner/developer, civil/structural engineer: Oregon Department of Transportation
General contractor, concrete contractor, concrete finishing company: Stellar J Corporation
Ready mix supplier: Knife River NW – Central Oregon

COMMERCIAL

Project: PRN 5-6
Location: Prineville
Owner/developer: Facebook Inc.
Architectural firm: Sheehan Nagle Hartray Architects
Civil/structural engineer: Parametrix
General contractor: Fortis Construction
Concrete contractor: Pence/Kelly Concrete LLC
Concrete finishing company: LaRusso Concrete Inc.
Ready mix suppliers: Hooker Creek Companies LLC and Knife River NW – Central Oregon

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CONCRETE HIGH-RISE

Project: 959 Franklin
Location: Eugene
Owner/developer: The Dinerstein Companies
Architectural firm: Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture
Civil/structural engineer: Branch Engineering Inc.
General contractor: John Hyland Construction
Concrete contractor: Baker Concrete Construction
Concrete finishing company: Dynasty Concrete Co.
Ready mix supplier: RiverBend Materials – A CRH Company
Excavation subcontractor: Knife River NW

CRAFTSMANSHIP

Project: Rosauers Supermarket
Location: Ridgefield, Washington
Owner/developer: FDM Development Inc.
Architectural firm: Bernardo/Wills Architects PC
Civil/structural engineer: DCI Engineers
General contractor: Perlo Construction
Concrete contractor: Perlo Structures
Concrete finishing company: Alite Construction LLC
Ready mix supplier: CalPortland

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EDUCATION HIGHER ED

Project: Tykeson Hall – University of Oregon
Location: Eugene
Owner/developer: University of Oregon
Design Architect: OFFICE 52 Architecture
Architectural firm: Rowell Brokaw Architects
Civil/structural engineer: Hohbach-Lewin Inc.
General contractor: Fortis Construction
Concrete contractor: Pence/Kelly Concrete LLC
Concrete finishing company: LaRusso Concrete Inc.
Ready mix supplier: RiverBend Materials – A CRH Company

EDUCATION K-12

Project: Grant High School Modernization
Location: Portland
Owner/developer: Portland Public Schools
Architectural firm: Mahlum Architects
Civil/structural engineer: KPFF Consulting Engineers
General contractor: Andersen Construction and Colas Structures LLC
Concrete contractors: ASI Structures and Colas Structures LLC
Concrete finishing companies: ASI Structures and LaRusso Concrete Inc.
Ready mix suppliers: Cadman Materials and CalPortland
Concrete floor polishing & sealing: Pure Floors

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HOSPITALITY

Project: Mount Angel Abbey Guest House
Location: Mt. Angel
Owner/developer: Mount Angel Abbey
Architectural firm: Brian Jackson AIA
Civil/structural engineer: KPFF Consulting Engineers
General contractor, concrete contractor: Dalke Construction
Concrete finishing company: Salem Concrete Paving
Ready mix supplier: RiverBend Materials – A CRH Company

MIXED USE

Project: Vista
Location: Portland
Owner/developer: Hoyt Realty Group
Architectural firm: Bora Architects
Civil/structural engineer: KPFF Consulting Engineers
General contractor: Andersen Construction
Concrete contractor, concrete finishing company: ASI Structures
Ready mix supplier: CalPortland

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PARKING STRUCTURE

Project: 7 SE Stark
Location: Portland
Owner/developer: Harsch Investment Properties
Architectural firm: Works Progress Architecture
Civil/structural engineer: DCI Engineers
General contractor: Hoffman Construction
Concrete contractor: Marion Construction Company
Concrete finishing company: Salem Concrete Paving
Ready mix supplier: CalPortland

PAVING

Project: OR 126B & McVay Highway: Mississippi Ave – UPRR Tracks
Location: Springfield
Owner/developer: City of Springfield
Civil/structural engineer: Jacobs
General contractor, concrete contractor, concrete finishing company: Wildish Construction Co.
Ready mix supplier: RiverBend Materials – A CRH Company

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PRECAST

Project: Providence Park Stadium Expansion
Location: Portland
Owner/developer: City of Portland – Spectator Facilities Department
Architectural firm: Allied Works Architecture Inc.
Civil/structural engineer: KPFF Consulting Engineers
General contractor, concrete contractor, concrete finishing company: Turner Construction
Ready mix supplier: CalPortland
Precast supplier: Knife River Precast
Precast erector: Precision Precast Erectors

PUBLIC FACILITY

Project: OMD Joint Forces Headquarters
Location: Salem
Owner/developer: Oregon Military Department
Architectural firm: SERA Architects
Civil/structural engineer: Miller Consulting Engineers
General contractor: Fortis Construction
Concrete contractor: Pence/Kelly Concrete LLC
Concrete finishing company: LaRusso Concrete Inc.
Ready mix supplier: RiverBend Materials – A CRH Company

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RECREATION

Project: Langer’s Entertainment Center
Location: Sherwood
Owner/developer: Langer Entertainment LLC
Architectural firm: Tiland/Schmidt Architects
Civil/structural engineer: Associated Consultants
General contractor: Pence Construction
Concrete contractor: Pence/Kelly Concrete LLC
Concrete finishing company: LaRusso Concrete Inc.
Ready mix supplier: Knife River NW

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RESIDENTIAL MULTIFAMILY

Project: Willow Creek Crossing
Location: Hillsboro
Owner/developer: DBG Properties LLC
Architectural firm: TVA Architects Inc.
Civil/structural engineer: Enayat Schneider Smith Engineering
General contractor: Walsh Construction Co.
Concrete contractor: RDF Builders
Concrete finishing company: Hillebrand Construction
Ready mix supplier: CalPortland

RESIDENTIAL SINGLE-FAMILY

Project: Oswego Lake House
Location: Lake Oswego
Owner/developer: Mark & Katherine Frandsen
Architectural firm: Giulietti / Schouten AIA Architects
Civil/structural engineer: Madden & Baughman Engineering
General contractor: Delahunt Homes
Concrete contractor, concrete finishing company: Superior Standards Construction Inc.
Ready mix supplier: Knife River NW

SEISMIC

Project: Woodlark Hotel
Location: Portland
Owner/developer: Stevens Block Development LLC
Architectural firm: MCA Architects
Civil/structural engineer: Kurt Fischer Structural Engineering
General contractor: Pence Construction
Concrete contractor: Pence/Kelly Concrete LLC
Concrete finishing company: LaRusso Concrete Inc.
Ready mix supplier: Knife River NW

SENIOR LIVING

Project: The Springs at Lake Oswego
Location: Lake Oswego
Owner/developer: The Springs Living
Architectural firm: Myhre Group Architects
Civil/structural engineer: TM Rippey Consulting Engineers
General contractor: Todd Construction Inc.
Concrete contractor, concrete finishing company: Whitaker/Ellis Builders Inc.
Ready mix supplier: Knife River NW
Concrete pumping: Brundage Bone

TILT-UP

Project: Project Meadowlark
Location: Portland
Owner/developer: Trammell Crow Company
Architectural firm, civil/structural engineer: Mackenzie
General contractor, concrete contractor, concrete finishing company: Skanska USA Building Inc.
Concrete cutting contractor: A Cut Above Concrete Cutting
Ready mix supplier: Knife River NW

UTILITY

Project: Lebanon Water Treatment Plant
Location: Lebanon
Owner/developer: City of Lebanon
Architectural firm: Shur Architects LLC
Civil/structural engineers: Carollo Engineers Inc., R2 Resource Consultants, and Udell Engineering
General contractor, concrete contractor: Slayden Constructors
Concrete finishing company: John Mills Concrete
Ready mix supplier: RiverBend Materials – A CRH Company

The post Regional groups honor outstanding concrete efforts appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Concrete production, according to some sources, accounts for roughly 8 percent of the world’s carbon emissions each year. That’s a ratio that, if concrete were a country, would give it the third-largest carbon footprint in the world behind China and the United States.

Obviously, for building industry professionals, the amount of concrete used in a project really matters.

“We can give whole building life-cycle assessment (LCA) in terms of enclosure and structure,” said Baha Sadreddin, a high-performance design specialist with ZGF Architects. “And in around 70 percent or so of a given building the concrete accounts for the carbon; it’s the single biggest impact material.”

Even more important than concrete is the cement it contains. That’s the main source of carbon within concrete. And because it’s part of a larger mixture, the use of cement within concrete can be analyzed – and changed.

The concrete used today still owes its general makeup to the 19th century process of baking limestone and clay in an oven and then grinding it into powder to form Portland cement – the key ingredient along with aggregate and sand.

Cement production is very carbon-intensive. But modern researchers have devised new concrete mixes that feature greater use of substitute cementitious material. This practice has expanded in recent years as builders have looked for ways to reduce concrete’s carbon footprint.

Now, Sadreddin and ZGF principal Chris Chatto, also a high-performance design specialist, have devised a new digital tool that analyzes proposed concrete mixtures for their carbon footprint and performs an LCA based on data provided. It can be done in seconds so that results can influence the next pour.

“Everything is moving toward Revit (building information modeling software) integration, and the reality is we have to make decisions way before we have a Revit model,” Chatto said.

Until now, this type of analysis was not done routinely for concrete mixtures until after completion of a project. This seemed backward to Chatto and Sadreddin, so they created their own tool to perform an LCA for any proposed concrete mix based on a simple Excel spreadsheet.

Users enter the desired strength of the mix in pounds per square inch along with the proposed mix of ingredients. The tool then uses an LCA database from Tally, a Revit application that quantifies the environmental impact of numerous building materials, to compare the proposed mix to typical regional practices. By using known baseline mixes for different regions of the country, the tool calculates the impacts of a proposed mix on climate change, energy demand, acidification, eutrophication, ozone depletion and smog formation.

“We’re using Tally for our data, but our calculator is simple so we could pull different cements in with the right EPDs (Environmental Product Declarations),” Chatto said. “We thought about building our own web calculator, but honestly I feel like Excel (is) on everyone’s desktop and it’s easier to save things for a project this way. It takes people five minutes to figure out how to use it.”

The tool thus allows comparison between a proposed concrete mix design and regional baselines without a Revit model and without proprietary EPDs for those mixes.

It’s also a boon for parties seeking Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification. The latest iteration of the world’s largest green building certification program assigns valuable points for use of products with EPDs as well as additional points for reaching carbon reduction marks of 5, 10 and 15 percent through the LCA process.

The tool has already proved its worth on several projects ZGF designed for California’s Department of General Services, including the Clifford L. Allenby Building completed in Sacramento this past spring. Use of the tool for that project allowed adjustments to concrete use so that the carbon footprint was reduced by 14.7 percent.

“We have to go further,” Chatto said, “but this is the first step toward building awareness in the industry. I’ve talked to some of our colleagues at other firms, and some are trying to get involved in LCA, but it’s daunting. But knowing concrete was the worst in terms of carbon footprint, we started there.”

ZGF is now offering its new tool for free to anyone who wants a copy.

“Right now the focus is to make the tool readily accessible, easy to use – and we know how high-impact concrete is,” Sadreddin said. “So we’re focusing on cement and hopefully we’ll have a lot of people using this.”

The post Another way to combat climate change appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Winning projects in 18 categories were celebrated recently during the 39th annual Excellence in Concrete Awards banquet at the Salem Convention Center.

More than 60 entries were submitted for the competition, which is the work of the Oregon Concrete & Aggregate Producers Association and the Oregon chapter of the American Concrete Institute. The program recognizes contractors, engineers and design firms for their use of concrete in projects completed within the past two years in Oregon and Southwest Washington.

One of the category winners, the Mill Creek Logistics Center in Salem, also received the People’s Choice Award.

In addition, the late Dr. M. Keith Kaufman was honored with a lifetime achievement award. He served as chief engineer for Knife River Corp. in Harrisburg for 19 years and as an adjunct professor at Oregon State University for 26 years. He also spent time as a senior bridge engineer at CH2M HILL in Corvallis. Kaufman died Nov. 2, 2018, at age 59.

Category winners for this year are:

BRIDGES

WSDOT Mill Plain Interchange to NE 18th St Interchange – Vancouver, Washington

Owner/developer, architectural firm and civil/structural engineer: Washington State Department of Transportation

General contractor, concrete contractor and concrete finishing company: Cascade Bridge LLC

Ready mix supplier: Cadman Materials

COMMERCIAL

PRN3 – Prineville

Owner/developer: Facebook

Architectural firms: Alpha Tech, Sheehan Partners

Structural engineer: Peoples Associates Structural Engineers

Civil engineer: Parametrix

General contractor: Fortis Construction

Concrete contractor: Pence/Kelly Concrete LLC

Concrete finishing company: LaRusso Concrete Inc.

Ready mix supplier: Hooker Creek Companies

CRAFTSMANSHIP
Portland Japanese Garden Cultural Crossing – Portland

Owner/developer: Portland Japanese Garden

Architectural firm: Hacker

Civil/structural engineer: KPFF Consulting Engineers

General contractor: Hoffman Construction Company

Concrete contractor: Pence/Kelly Concrete LLC

Concrete finishing company: LaRusso Concrete Inc.

Ready mix supplier: Knife River NW

EDUCATION K-12

Faubion PK-8 School – Portland

Owner/developer: Portland Public Schools and Concordia University

Architectural firm: Bora Architects

Civil/structural engineer: 3J Consulting

General contractor and concrete contractor: Todd Construction

Concrete finishing company: Dual Force Construction Inc.

Ready mix supplier: Cadman Materials

EDUCATION HIGHER ED

Peter Stott Center Renovation & Viking Pavilion – Portland����������

Owner/developer: Portland State University

Architectural firms: Woofter Architecture PC; Sink Combs Dethlefs

Civil/structural engineer: KPFF Consulting Engineers

General contractor, concrete contractor and concrete finishing company: Fortis Construction

Precast concrete supplier and ready mix supplier: Knife River NW

MIXED USE

Block 8L – Portland

Owner/developer: Gerding Elden Development

Architectural firm: Ankrom Moisan Architects

Civil/structural engineer: DCI Engineers

General contractor: Andersen Construction

Concrete contractor and concrete finishing company: Whitaker/Ellis Builders Inc.

Concrete pumping: Brundage Bone Concrete Pumping

Ready mix supplier: Knife River NW

OFFICE BUILDING

12th & Morrison Office Building – Portland

Owner/developer: Menashe Properties

Architectural firm: LRS Architects

Civil/structural engineer: Nishkian Dean Structural Engineers

General contractor: Turner Construction

Concrete contractor and concrete finishing company: Turner Construction Self-Perform Operations

Ready mix supplier: CalPortland

PAVING

Oregon Route 62: Corridor Solutions Unit 2 – Medford

Owner/developer: Oregon Department of Transportation

Civil/structural engineer: OBEC Consulting Engineers

General contractor: Knife River Materials

Concrete contractor and concrete finishing company: Roger Langeliers Construction

Ready mix suppliers: Knife River Materials; Knife River NW

PEDESTRIAN WALKWAY

Grant Street Pier – Vancouver, Washington

Owner/developer: city of Vancouver

Architectural firm: Studio of Larry Kirkland

Civil/structural engineer: BergerABAM

General contractor, concrete contractor and concrete finishing company: Rotschy Inc.

Ready mix supplier: CalPortland

PRECAST

The Carson (Block 294E) – Portland

Owner/developer: Cairn Pacific

Architectural firm: GBD Architects

Civil/structural engineer: KPFF Consulting Engineers

General contractor: JBA-ACCO LLC

Concrete contractor and concrete finishing company: ASI Structures

Precast erector: Precision Precast Erectors LLC

Precast concrete supplier: Knife River Prestress

Ready mix supplier: CalPortland

PUBLIC FACILITY

SAIF Campus Renovation – Salem

Owner/developer: SAIF

Architectural firm: Ankrom Moisan

Civil/structural engineer: Kramer Gehlen & Associates

General contractor and concrete contractor: Lease Crutcher Lewis

Concrete finishing company: Salem Industrial Concrete

Ready mix supplier: RiverBend Materials, a CRH Company

RECREATION

Tillamook Cheese Factory Visitors Center – Tillamook

Owner/developer: Tillamook County Creamery Association

Architectural firm: Olson Kundig

Civil/structural engineer: GHD

General contractor: Precision Construction Co.

Concrete contractor and concrete finishing company: Whitaker/Ellis Builders Inc.

Concrete pumping: Brundage Bone Concrete Pumping

Ready mix supplier: CoastWide Ready-Mix

RESIDENTIAL MULTIFAMILY

Sanctuary Apartments – Portland

Owner/developer and general contractor: Fore Property Company

Architectural firm: SERA Architects Inc.

Civil/structural engineer: KPFF Consulting Engineers

Concrete contractor and concrete finishing company: Whitaker/Ellis Builders Inc.

Concrete pumping: Brundage Bone Concrete Pumping

Ready mix supplier: Knife River NW

RESIDENTIAL RETIREMENT

Touchmark in the West Hills – Portland

Owner/developer: Touchmark in the West Hills LLC

Architectural firm: LRS Architects

Civil/structural engineer: Otak Inc.

General contractor: Andersen Construction Co.

Concrete contractor and concrete finishing company: Whitaker/Ellis Builders Inc.

Concrete pumping: Brundage Bone Concrete Pumping

Ready mix supplier: CalPortland

RESIDENTIAL SINGLE FAMILY

NW Rubicon Lane – Portland

Owner/developer: Erin & Craig Zanon

Architectural firm: Jeffrey L. Miller Architect PC

General contractor: Shelbourne Homes

Concrete contractor and concrete finishing company: Concrete Structures LLC

Concrete pumping: Brundage Bone Concrete Pumping

Landscape architect: Samuel H. Williamson Associates

Ready mix supplier: CalPortland

RESTORATION

U.S. 30: Mosier, Dry Canyon, & Chenoweth Creek Bridges – The Dalles

Owner/developer: Oregon Department of Transportation

Engineer: Oregon Department of Transportation Bridge Preservation Crew

General contractor, concrete contractor and concrete finishing company: Wildish Standard Paving Co.

Concrete preservation: Vector Construction Inc.

Ready mix supplier: Hood River Sand, Gravel & Ready Mix

TILT-UP

Mill Creek Logistics Center – Salem

Owner/developer: Capstone Partners LLC

Architectural firm and structural engineer: Mackenzie

Civil engineer: WesTech Engineering

General contractor: Perlo Construction

Concrete contractor: Perlo Structures

Concrete finishing company: LaRusso Concrete Inc.

Slab design consultant: Structural Services Inc.

Ready mix supplier: RiverBend Materials, a CRH Company

UTILITY

China Camp Creek Tidegates – Coquille

Owner/developer: Beaver Slough Drainage District

Civil/structural engineer: Precision Structural Engineering

General contractor, concrete contractor and concrete finishing company: West Coast Contractors

Concrete pumping: Brundage Bone Concrete Pumping

Ready mix supplier: Knife River Materials

The post Exceptional concrete work recognized during awards event appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Portland International Airport is in the midst of a series of large construction projects dubbed PDX Next that will see a host of renovations and new construction over the next six years. The most prominent of those projects is an 830-foot long expansion of passenger Concourse E on the airport’s north side that will re-balance how the air carriers who serve PDX are organized across the airport’s four main terminals.

Dubbed the Terminal Rebalancing, the project includes construction of six new gates that will allow the largest two air carriers at PDX, Alaska Air Group and Southwest Airlines, to reorganize their aircraft. Southwest Airlines will move from Concourse C to Concourse E when the project is finished, while Alaska will spread out between Concourse B and C on the south side.

The $215 million expansion broke ground last summer and still has roughly two years to go until completion. For now, check out this photo gallery of ongoing construction, which remains below grade at this stage but will soon include installation of structural steel.

The post Photos: Work progresses under public eye at PDX appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

The new Multnomah County Courthouse project is steadily climbing, floor by floor, as general contractor Hoffman Construction works on the planned $315 million, 17-story replacement for the existing courthouse on Southwest Fourth Avenue.

Hoffman recently hosted a tour of the construction site as part of the workforce development event Industry for a Day, which has been held the past three years by nonprofit group All Hands Raised. Below, a short video will give you a quick look inside the project.

The post VIDEO: Courthouse project taking shape appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

In Oregon, cross-laminated timber is a trending topic, with its promise of sustainability, smart design and family-wage jobs. But outside the world of timber and forestry a campaign has begun to sink the emerging building product.

Last month, the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association unveiled its “Build with Strength” initiative, complete with a slick website, professionally-produced video clips and public relations staff. Representatives of the concrete industry confirm CLT has in fact cut into its market share. They say they’re tired of taking abuse, and are starting to “push back.”

The 91��Ƶ looked into this with British architect and CLT champion Andrew Waugh and structural engineer and NRMCA Senior Vice President Lionel Lemay.

Quality and craft

By the end of a half-hour interview about CLT, Waugh was “heated.”

He said he gets that way when he’s called to defend the emerging building product from detractors in the world of concrete and steel. Waugh has dedicated his career to CLT, and thinks all issues in construction should be viewed in context of climate change, so he has big problems with how products like concrete are produced.

It’s dug from an open-cast mine, generally in a developing country, which Westerners generally don’t consider, he says. And the shipping involved and the days-long heating process are far from sustainable.

“Concrete is a heinous and a poisonous product that is bad for the environment,” Waugh said. “We do need it – for roads, for foundations. We often need it for bridges, and we definitely need it for dams. But we don’t need it for buildings.”

CLT, on the other hand, is made of wood, which stores carbon.

“Our buildings weigh a fifth of what a concrete building weighs,” he said. “They take 10 percent of the deliveries to site.”

Last year, Waugh met with representatives of the Portland Business Alliance on tour in London and was inspired by their “passion, interest and vigor.” Among the contingent was Valerie Johnson, operator of the D.R. Johnson lumber mill in Riddle; she talked with him about rural economies. He heard LEVER Architecture founding principal Thomas Robinson talk about “forest to frame.”

“I thought, that’s fantastic,” Waugh said. “You know, I’m going to copy that.”

Waugh visited Portland last month to talk timber as a guest of the PBA. Fielding questions for three days can teach a person about the mood of the public, he said.

“The excitement here and the passion here for sustainability, for innovation, for quality and craft – it’s all here,” he said. “You have every single thing going for you, and you’ve got trees. You’ve got people like Valerie Johnson. You have a proactive timber industry, and that’s what you need. It really is about the individuals.”

Waugh first learned about CLT in 2003, when it was used for the Olympic Village in Turin, Italy. His firm, Waugh Thistleton, built its first CLT building three months later. Today it has 23 live projects employing the product, and a number of high-profile buildings in its portfolio, includingthe tallest timber residential building, Murray Grove, and what will be the largest CLT project in the world, Dalston Lane.

There are more than 500 CLT buildings in Europe. Due to more restrictive building codes and a lack of established production chains, there are only a handful in the U.S. (The Oregon Forest Resources Institute is aware of six to eight CLT projects under construction or complete in the U.S.) But this could quickly change.

While in Portland, Waugh met with a group of contractors at the Albina Yard project. He said builders have expressed apprehension.

“You know, it’s new,” he said. “It’s the first time in 100 years that there’s been a fundamental change in construction system. They’d be mad if they weren’t nervous.

“People in the concrete and steel industry mistakenly see this as a threat,” he continued. “They should see this as an opportunity. This is our VHS-Betamax moment. What those industries should take as a threat is climate change. What we’ve been doing as an industry, and I include architecture within the construction industry – it makes me very unpopular with architects – what we’ve done as the construction industry, in reaction to the biggest calamity that’s faced humanity since the Black Death, has been to, you know, stick some solar panels on it. Stick a windmill on it. I mean, it’s insane.”

Among the changes under CLT, costs will be arranged differently, Waugh predicts. They’ll be more transparent, for one thing, because around one-third of the construction costs will come from one source.

“You’re reducing a lot of your opaque costs,” he said. “There are fewer people on a job site, and they’re there for shorter periods. Fewer trades, and for those trades that are there, it’s a far more straightforward process.”

Though much recent media attention of CLT has focused on its potential in high-rise construction, he considers that tact wrongheaded. The fact is super-tall buildings are not efficient.

“The other problem with putting Photoshopped images of tall timber buildings in the press is that ultimately what will happen is that it will become a style, and like every other style, it will go the way of the bell bottom. And then maybe in 20 years’ time, it will come back. But it’s not the way to do it. We need to rethink, reappraise, re-evaluate and reimagine the way we construct buildings.”

‘Build with Strength’

In a guest column in the March 25 edition of the News Tribune in Tacoma, Wash., CalPortland CEO and NRMCA Chairman Allen Hamblen explained why his group has taken aim at CLT.

“Simply put, just because wood is abundant does not mean its use should be incentivized for construction projects like schools and multifamily housing,” Hamblen wrote. “Long story short, we fight for concrete because we know that the construction industry, even right here on timber’s home turf, is not united behind the idea of tax credits that bank economic growth on a single product, especially one as risky as CLT.”

The op-ed coincided with the rollout of the “Build with Strength” campaign, which contains an “unprecedented communications strategy,” a multi-city media tour and “rapid response capabilities,” according to a news release trumpeting the initiative’s arrival.
At the forefront of the public outreach effort is Lemay, who oversees sustainable development for the NRMCA. CLT is inferior to concrete in terms of durability, safety and cost, he says.

“The thing with the wood industry is that they don’t like to cite scientific research because it doesn’t support their argument,” he said.

Lemay cited work by the Forest Stewardship Council and Massachusetts Institute of Technology civil engineering professor Jeremy Gregory (Gregory has told the 91��Ƶ he only studies, and doesn’t endorse, building products). Concrete fares better than CLT in LEED and Green Globes building certification programs, Lemay added.

He called the idea of carbon sequestration a “myth,” and accused CLT proponents in the wood industry of “greenwashing.”

Far less carbon is stored than CLT advocates admit – about 15 percent, according to a 2007 Wilderness Society study, Lemay said.

If researchers look at a building’s entire life cycle, instead of just the manufacturing phase, concrete is the greener product, he said.

“The scientific research shows that concrete buildings have lower carbon footprints than wood buildings,” he said.

Lemay called concrete less harmful to the environment than timber, which he said still relies on harmful strategies like clear-cutting and pesticides.

A major argument of “Build with Strength” is fire safety. The group says CLT burns hotter and longer than conventional wood-frame construction, to the point where fire sprinklers become exhausted and a building collapses more suddenly. Neighbors of the site where a Manhattan wood skyscraper is planned are up in arms over the danger inherent in the project, according to Lemay.

“The wood lobby is going to tell you that wood doesn’t burn,” he said. “It’s amazing that they would make that claim.”

The post Material differences: CLT becomes divisive appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

The building industry gathered in Salem recently to honor some of the most outstanding concrete work for projects completed in Oregon and Southwest Washington within the past two years.

The 36th annual Excellence in Concrete Awards, produced through a joint effort of the Oregon Concrete and Aggregate Producers Association and the American Concrete Institute‘s Oregon chapter, drew more than 60 entries. Winning projects in 17 categories were recognized during an awards banquet held April 22 at the Salem Convention Center.

The concrete work for the Oregon Zoo‘s Elephant Lands received the award for a commercial project as well as the People’s Choice award.

Other winning projects included: Best bridge work –�� Interstate 5 Iowa Street Viaduct, Portland; Craftsmanship – the Tiki Lounge, Roseburg; Lane Community College Center for Learning and Student Success, Eugene; K-12 education – Central Catholic High School Monsignor Tim Murphy Center, Portland; Mixed use – Hassalo on Eighth, Portland; Parking – Park Avenue Park and Ride Garage, Milwaukie; Paving – Reed Market, Bend; Pedestrian walkway – Waterford Grand, Eugene; Precast – Lamb Weston expansion, Boardman; Public facility – city of Portland Fire and Rescue Station 21, Portland; Residential multifamily – Marvel 29, Portland; Residential single-family – Wolthius Residence, Sweet Home; Tilt-up – Eugene Veterans Affairs Clinic, Eugene; Utility – McMinnville Water Treatment Plant, McMinnville; Utility-water reservoir – Kelly Butte Reservoir, Portland; Winery – Fairsing Tasting Room, Yamhill.

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