For developers keen to use cross-laminated timber, the failure in March of CLT panels at a project on Oregon State University‘s campus has been met with a widespread shrug.

CLT is being used for a number of Portland-area projects, some with material from D.R. Johnson, the Southern Oregon supplier at the heart of the OSU incident.

For its proponents, CLT offers an attractive combination of warm aesthetics, a buy-local economic story and shorter construction schedules. Developers who are using the products say they are satisfied D.R. Johnson has fixed the issues that caused the material to reportedly delaminate at Peavy Hall in Corvallis.

Key Development‘s Block 76 West project, near the Burnside Bridge‘s east end, is using CLT materials from D.R. Johnson.

“We did not have any reluctance to go with D.R. Johnson,” said Claudia Munk-von Flotow, chief operating officer of Key Development. “They’ve been great to work with.”

The Block 76 West project, formerly known as SideYard, will have 23,569 square feet of space over five floors. Office users are being sought for the top floors, Flotow said. Key Development is in talks with the owners of Hood River’s Ferment Brewing Co. and Camp 1805 Distillery to open tasting rooms in the building.

Andersen Construction is building the project based on a design from Skylab Architecture.

District Office, a Central Eastside Industrial District project from Beam Development and Urban Development + Partners, will also use CLT from D.R. Johnson.

“It’s a positive connection between the urban economy and rural economy here in Oregon, and aesthetically, it’s more compelling,” said Jonathan Malsin, a principal at Beam Development.

Hacker, which designed District Office, will itself occupy 20,000 square feet in the six-floor, 110,000-square-foot building. Andersen Construction is building the project.

Beam Development was already interested in CLT, Malsin said, before a suggestion was made that it be used for District Office.

“We’ve been keen on using CLT for a while now,” he said. “When we started planning the project with Hacker (officials), they proposed it.”

The OSU incident did not dissuade the District Office project team from using D.R. Johnson’s CLT.

“We did our due diligence,” Malsin said. “We remain thrilled to be working with them and are confident in their ability to deliver.”

Brandon Brown, a Portland developer, also did not hesitate to use CLT materials on the Flatiron building. Construction of the six-floor, approximately 25,000-square-foot office project is wrapping up, with completion expected by Nov. 1.

CLT was more appropriate for the building, with its envelope reaching the triangular lot’s boundaries, Brown said.

“The wood performs in a much better way than concrete for that specific design,” he said.

Brown also favored the aesthetics of CLT.

“Part of the driver was just the warmth the wood brings to the feel of the buildings,” he said. “That’s something that concrete just doesn’t allow for.”

Works Progress Architecture designed the Flatiron building; Abbott Construction is serving as general contractor.

D.R. Johnson, based in Riddle, offers regional ties and a feel-good story for local projects looking to support Oregon’s timber industry. But the company does have competitors, such as Structurlam of British Columbia, in addition to traditional concrete-and-steel construction. Structurlam provided CLT to First Tech Federal Credit Union‘s newly opened 156,000-square-foot office building in Hillsboro.

D.R. Johnson did not respond to a message seeking comment.

Not every CLT proposal has moved forward. Most notably, Framework from Portland’s Project^ was halted in July after the 12-story proposal attracted a range of grants and months of publicity. Project^ blamed escalating construction costs, fluctuating tax-credit markets and inflation.

In August, Oregon issued new building codes for CLT structures. Known as the Statewide Alternative Method, the codes are drawn from the 2021 International Building Code and allow for tall wood construction.

The post Moving forward with structural innovation appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

The quest to build the first mass-timber high-rise in the U.S. has been placed on hold indefinitely.

Citing skyrocketing labor costs, inflation and fluctuations in the tax credit market, Portland developer project^ on Monday announced the postponement of Framework, a proposed 12-story mixed-use tower for the Pearl District. Plans had called for 60 units of affordable housing and approximately 90,000 square feet of floor space in a cross-laminated timber structure. But the project team encountered financial challenges that proved too much to overcome, at least for now.

“Over the last four years, the Framework team has worked with private entities and public agencies that have understood the nature of this project and have supported our efforts to bring this pioneering model to fruition,” Anyeley Hallova, developer with the Portland-based project^, said in a statement released Monday on frameworkportland.com. “Although beset with market challenges beyond our control, we are very proud of Framework’s achievements and the new standards we’ve established for the use of CLT in the U.S.”

The statement was released on behalf of the project team and notes that “the postponement is a result of changing market conditions over the past two years, including inflation, escalating construction costs and fluctuations in the tax credit market. All have impacted the project’s bottom line.”

The estimated price tag of Framework was $29 million.

As recently as March, at the International Mass Timber Conference at the Oregon Convention Center, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler was promoting Framework in glowing terms after the city allocated $6 million for the project through the Portland Housing Bureau‘s Fast Starts program.

“This isn’t just another building material,” Wheeler said at the conference. “This has the opportunity to help us solve our community’s key challenges around development, around sustainability, around climate change and around employments in rural parts of America. That’s what’s at stake here.”

Now that $6 million will go elsewhere, according to Wheeler.

“We’re disappointed to miss out on an opportunity to create 60 units of affordable housing for only $6 million in city resources,” he told the 91��Ƶ in a text message exchange. “The housing bureau will repurpose the funds to other projects.”

Last year, Framework, designed by LEVER Architecture, won the $1.5 million U.S. Tall Wood Building Prize from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Softwood Lumber Board and the Binational Softwood Lumber Council. Other members of the project team included D.R. Johnson Lumber Co. of Riddle, the supplier of CLT components, as well as KPFF Engineering and general contractor Walsh Construction.

LEVER Architecture did not respond promptly to requests for comment.

Financially, the project team was banking on a mix of public and private monies. In addition to $6 million from Fast Starts, it received grants from the U.S. Forest Service, Metro, the Hewlett Foundation, the Harbourton Foundation, the Edwards Mother Earth Foundation and the Oregon Community Foundation.

But with a $2 million funding gap remaining, according to several recent media reports, it became clear why a March 1 ground-breaking event was canceled and never rescheduled.

The project team’s statement specifically focuses on labor costs in the booming Portland construction market. It mirrors the national situation, where contractors are increasingly unable to find sufficient skilled workers.

“Since the inception of Framework,” the statement reads, “Portland has witnessed an increasingly tight construction market with increasing building costs, which have significantly impacted progress for Framework and other construction projects.”

Despite the postponement, parties involved with the project, including the property owner, remain hopeful it can be revived.

“Framework has been steadfast in its commitment to social equity and economic opportunity and in its mission to promote rural Oregon economies and deliver affordable housing,” Beneficial State Bank CEO Kat Taylor said in the project team’s statement. “We look forward to the opportunity to advance a 2.0 version of the project.”

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Construction of the tallest wood-framed commercial building in the United States is poised to start in Portland in the near future, and Mayor Ted Wheeler took to the podium Thursday to tout that fact.

Planned in the Pearl District as a 12-story mixed-use building, Framework will feature cutting-edge cross-laminated timber. The 148-foot-tall building will offer approximately 90,000 square feet of floor space and 60 units of affordable housing in one of the city’s most affluent neighborhoods.

Wheeler spoke at the third annual International Mass Timber Conference at the Oregon Convention Center in support of the project, which has garnered international acclaim and substantial grant money. Even the city has put its money where its proverbial mouth is, awarding Framework some $6 million via the Housing Bureau’s Fast Starts program backing affordable housing.

“It’s the first high-rise structure in the U.S. (to be) built from cross-laminated timber,” Wheeler said. “And in addition to being (a seismically) resilient building, this technology allows us to build taller and more environmentally sustainable buildings.”

Last year, Framework, designed by LEVER Architecture, won the $1.5 million U.S. Tall Wood Building Prize from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Softwood Lumber Board and the Binational Softwood Lumber Council. The project also has received grants from the U.S. Forest Service, Metro, the Hewlett Foundation, the Harbourton Foundation, the Edwards Mother Earth Foundation and the Oregon Community Foundation.

Private financing also will help pay for the approximately $29 million project, although the process to finalize those terms has resulted in delays.

Developers aim to use at least 50 percent locally sourced wood in construction, which will take an estimated 14 months to complete.

D.R. Johnson Lumber Co. of Riddle is the supplier of the CLT components of the project, while engineering is being carried out by KPFF Engineering of Portland. Walsh Construction will be the general contractor.

Framework also will demonstrate the long-term potential of mass-timber construction, including CLT, Wheeler said.

“We’ve taken a timber innovation and put it in the heart of Portland, Oregon,” Wheeler said. “We have made it uniquely about the needs of Portland in terms of sustainability, environmental resilience, earthquake resilience and concern about the cost of housing in our community.”

Ground was initially supposed to be broken by March 1, but that date has now been pushed back.

Wheeler, a grandson of late timber magnate Coleman Wheeler, mentioned that mass-timber construction has potential to bolster the timber industry in Oregon. But questions will need to be answered first.

“It’s essential to sustainably manage our forests,” he said. “As new technology like CLT comes on line we’re going to see more conversation about sustainable harvest methods used in production.”

Framework, he acknowledged, has not been without controversy. Opponents have questioned the project cost, which is greater than a comparable concrete and steel structure, and the source of the wood to be used in the building.

Locally, environmental groups are worried that mass-timber technology will encourage timber companies to overharvest Oregon’s private and state-owned forests. That sentiment was expressed in a letter sent in January to Wheeler from the Audubon Society of Portland and representatives of a host of local groups, including Oregon Wild, the Center for Sustainable Economy, the Sierra Club’s Oregon chapter and others.

“This isn’t just another building material,” Wheeler said. “This has the opportunity to help us solve our community’s key challenges around development, around sustainability, around climate change and around employments in rural parts of America. That’s what’s at stake here.”

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LEVER Architecture recently added to its haul of awards after being named a . The firm was honored in the December issue of Architectural Record. The award honors young, up-and-coming architects that have created a notable portfolio of work.

LEVER Architecture’s founder, Thomas Robinson, was honored earlier this year by the Architectural League of New York as one of its 2017 Emerging Voices in Architecture.

Since 2000, Architectural Record has showcased promising practitioners who have led firms for a decade or less. Each honoree must have a portfolio of built projects and on-the-boards ones that reflect a nuanced approach to architecture and the ideas of a generation.

The firm’s work with cross-laminated timber projects such as Framework and Albina Yard contributed to its recognition in Architectural Record. The magazine also noted LEVER’s projects have an ability to enrich the public realm.

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The long-awaited Framework building is close to taking root in the Pearl District.

Portland developer Project^ plans to break ground in early 2018 on the 11-story mixed-use building. Framework will be the United States’ tallest building to use cross-laminated timber – a factor that has led to a long development period.

“Most projects don’t have an R-and-D phase,” said Anyeley Hallova, a partner at Project^. “They just start designing and submit for their permit.”

Construction is estimated to take 14 months from ground being broken.

The project recently took a leap forward when the city of Portland announced Framework had been selected as a recipient of a $6 million Fast Start grant to provide affordable housing. Framework will include 60 apartments, all affordable at 60 percent of area median income. Home Forward, a Portland nonprofit, will own and operate the affordable units.

The building’s commercial areas will be financed separately, adding to the project’s complexity. Commercial financing has not yet closed, but is nearly wrapped up, Hallova said Tuesday. She said she could not identify the lender until the loan has closed.

Albina Community Bank and Beneficial State Bank have agreed to occupy office space in Framework and provide services to the low-income residential tenants. Other commercial tenants will include street-level retail and B-corporation businesses with closely aligned social missions.

The ground floor will feature include a tall-timber exhibit. The building’s 11 floors will be topped by a roof deck.

Some other aspects of the project remain under wraps; Hallova declined to identify Framework’s CLT supplier ahead of an official announcement.

Framework’s high profile has brought plenty of media and industry attention. The project team has fielded questions from fellow developers, investors, manufacturers and government agencies interested in CLT technology, Hallova said.

“Every week we have somebody talking to us,” she said. “I believe that there are quite a few projects that are in development or thinking about this technology.”

The influential Atlantic magazine featured Framework and its designer, LEVER Architecture, in a feature for its December 2017 issue.

Framework’s status as a highly visible timber project has attracted the ire of the concrete industry, which argues CLT technology lacks a proven safety record. A statement issued by the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association also took issue with Framework’s timber-industry backing.

“The welfare of the local timber industry should play no part in the rationale of what is otherwise strictly a construction decision,” stated Kevin Lawlor, spokesman for the concrete association’s “Build with Strength” campaign.

Framework’s materials underwent a stringent two-year testing process covering fire resistance, seismic strength and acoustics, Hallova said. Also, CLT buildings have a successful record in Canada and Europe, she noted.

Framework will be particularly earthquake resilient, Hallova said.

“We’ve actually gone above and beyond the seismic code and created a building that after a major earthquake … would have little or no damage,” she said.

The $6 million grant from the city of Portland was only the latest grant the project has been awarded. Framework earned a $1.5 million prize by winning the U.S. Tall Wood Building Prize from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Softwood Lumber Board and the Binational Softwood Lumber Council.

Framework has also received grants from the U.S. Forest Service, Metro, the Hewlett Foundation, the Harbourton Foundation, the Edwards Mother Earth Foundation and the Oregon Community Foundation.

The post Team close to breaking ground on Framework appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

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.

“The significance of that permit is that’s the first time a high-rise building made from timber was permitted in the United States,” 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 café 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.

“Our plan marketing-wise is to market to B-corporations because this is a mission-driven project,” she said.

A deck spanning about half of the rooftop will provide seating and a “people’s garden” 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 – 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, “gave us the resources we needed to go down the path of doing the testing we needed to do.”

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.

“It 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),” 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.

“This project is considered a demonstration project for a couple of reasons,” Hallova said. “Obviously, building the first wooden skyscraper is part of that.”

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 “true technical and entrepreneurial achievement.”

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

“The 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,” 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.

“There’s definitely potential,” he said. “It’s just like with any new technology, it takes a few projects to pioneer the path.”

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

“With 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,” 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.

“It’s great to see a new technology come in and disrupt the market and put some pressure on the concrete and steel guys,” 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:

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The Framework tower project on Wednesday received another honor – the Portland Design Commission‘s Design Excellence Award. The project previously won the 2015 U.S. Tall Wood Building prize.

The Design Commission commended the Framework tower during a presentation to the City Council.

“Periodically, a project comes before the commission that stands out among its peers,” Design Commission Chairman David Wark said. “The Framework (design) truly impressed the commission. It embodies everything the Design Commission is seeking.”

Wark credited the tower’s embrace of the design guidelines with its use of canopies and retail space to activate the streetscape. He also applauded the fact that such high level of design was used for an affordable housing project.

“It addresses our city’s urgent need to house our most vulnerable citizens,” he said.

The design calls for a 148-foot-tall mass-timber building with 11 stories of offices, residential units and retail space. The project team includes Home Forward, KPFF Consulting Engineers, LEVER Architecture and Walsh Construction.

Wark also applauded the team’s use of cross-laminated timber (CLT) as a sustainable resource. When completed, the building is on track to be the tallest CLT building in the country.

“Where is it written that low-income people should have to live in buildings that aren’t beautiful?” Commissioner Nick Fish said. “Affordable housing can be wonderfully designed. I hope this sets the standard for affordable housing.”

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Supporters of cross-laminated timber are pondering a chicken-or-the-egg problem – which will come first in the tall wood revolution: demand for CLT, or the domestic supply chain?

By now, in the Pacific Northwest and around the U.S. have reported on CLT and its sky-high potential – wooden skylines, a revitalized timber industry, healthier forests, etc.

But in Oregon and Washington, significant steps lie ahead before CLT fully takes hold. And least among them seems to be a by the steel and concrete industries.

“The single most important determinant of the on the West Coast will be: Does it save developers money?” said Greg Block, president of Sustainable Northwest.

Right now, it rarely does.

Intermediate objective

CLT is more expensive than its competitors, steel and concrete. However, labor costs can be lower for CLT projects because they can be built quicker. For CLT to take off, builders and developers, risk-averse by nature, need to be convinced that these cost savings justify adopting the emerging building product.

But there is a small and growing number of projects showcasing the new product in the Pacific Northwest. The Framework tower planned for the Pearl District will be the tallest wood-framed building in the U.S. With a large affordable housing component and ambitious design ideas, the project is intended to show off what CLT can do; the project would not likely have penciled out without the sizable federal grant it received. (Framework has received design approval and is awaiting construction permits.)

It remains to be seen what types of new construction will be CLT’s “sweet spot.” Though high-rises can be built using mass timber, some observers believe other uses of CLT would be more practical on a large scale.

Mid-rises and industrial applications are more likely, Block said.

“You may see some very tall towers, but that’s not where we’re anticipating the heavy investment is going to go,” he said. “It’s going to depend on the economies of scale for different types of buildings and the advantages and disadvantages of other competing materials. But people are going to experiment.”

Another showcase project is PATH Architecture‘s Carbon12 eight-story condo tower on North Williams Avenue. Though its team also received grant money to cover design concept costs, it was able to hustle and get the project topped out in a matter of weeks, generating considerable savings.

In North America there are two companies in the U.S. certified to manufacture CLT, and two in Canada. The first in the U.S. was D.R. Johnson, a family-owned mill based in Riddle.

At the time the Carbon12 project team was soliciting CLT suppliers, D.R. Johnson was unable to match its specifications, according to developer Ben Kaiser, who said he would have preferred to do business with an Oregon company. He got bids from European firms, before opting to go with Canadian company Structurlam.

Manufacturing demand

Rural economic development has always been a tough nut to crack. Sparsely-populated counties like Douglas and Lane don’t have many mid-rises, but officials hope that by creating a regulatory environment, they can be more inviting to businesses wishing to join the CLT supply chain.

“Timber is still one of our primary industries here in Lane County,” said Sarah Means, economic development director for Lane County. “And we see mass-timber products as a very intriguing innovation to the wood products industry … We know that we’ll each have a role to play if this moves forward, which we think it will.”

Though it’s near the Portland-metro area, is still timber country, said Rick Gruen, its economic development director. With 75 percent of its area forestland, economics and forestry are intrinsically tied together.

(One way Clackamas County has tried to attract development is by making its permitting and plan review process as stress-free for developers as possible, according to Gruen.)

Gruen and Clackamas County are big players in an alliance of economic development offices and research institutions looking at modernizing manufacturing in the Pacific Northwest – and the (PNMP) has been highly interested in the CLT supply chain.

The PNMP has identified the need for possible “intermediary facilities” to kiln-dry CLT to the building code-required level of 12 percent moisture (most lumber leaves the mill at around 18 percent).

Research by Oregon State University offers a thumbnail sketch of costs to enter the CLT market, including as an intermediary facility. If a company is already in the glulam business, gearing up for CLT would cost close to $15 million. Starting from scratch would cost around $40 million.

Lumber businesses that want to provide a CLT lumber line – by kiln-drying lumber up to 12 percent – are looking at a cost in the $4 million range.

Pool resources

Paying to build a manufacturing facility would require a lot of confidence in demand for CLT becoming sufficient to see the investment pay off. But once more domestic producers “jump in the pool,” the cost of CLT would likely drop.

“You’re unlikely to see significant demand pull without having a domestic manufactured product that’s cost-competitive,” Block said. “By the same token, once that becomes available, we’re going to see more algorithmic scaling of the adoption of CLT once this chicken-and-egg conundrum works itself out.”

Sustainable Northwest operates a for-profit subsidiary, Sustainable Northwest Wood, which sells wood from about 50 rural mills in Oregon and Washington. But some think that for CLT to “hit,” the large wood products manufacturers need to get on board. But many already have their own mass-timber products.

“We’re watching what happens with CLT with great interest,” said a spokeswoman for Roseburg Forest Products. “But right now we have no plans to enter that market.”

Both Roseburg Forest Products and Boise Cascade, another major manufacturer, already produce laminated veneer lumber (LVL), a mass-timber product that isn’t rated for as many uses as CLT. The byproducts of manufacturing LVL are more profitable than those from CLT. But amid the current mass-timber craze, the company is looking into expanding its LVL line, senior vice president John Sahlberg said.

One large mill is moving forward with a large CLT manufacturing component – Vaagan Brothers Lumber in Colville, Washington. There’s also a group in Spokane that has secured financing, Block said.

“I do think we’re highly likely to have additional manufacturing facilities online in the near future,” he said. “I’m aware of three serious and five proposed CLT manufacturers that are seeking financing.”

No big deal

The consensus is that both Oregon and Washington are providing supportive policy environments for CLT and new mass-timber building methods. Oregon’s building code is more CLT-friendly, but Washington has been more proactive with its procurement services promoting CLT, specifying the product for certain public school projects.

Washington’s 2016 budget directed $5.5 million to construction of modular classrooms for K-3 students as CLT demonstration projects.

Representatives from both states are serving on the International Code Council’s ad hoc group developing code updates for tall wood buildings for the scheduled 2018 updates. Three Washington projects are planned with CLT and may receive some state funding – the La Conner Library, the Aberdeen Gateway Center and a housing project in Spokane.

And demand-side problems still persist, according to Leda Chahim, government affairs specialist for Forterra, a sustainability-focused nonprofit in Washington state.

“For 20 years we’ve watched the decline of the timber industry in rural Oregon and Washington state,” she said. “CLT and mass timber have the potential to provide a sustainable and economically vibrant source of industry, and house our populations and put our people back to work.”

Some of the ideas to pay for it in rural areas include a federal tax incentive program called New Market Tax Credits – available only to lenders in America’s poorest communities.

The Wood Products Council’s Ethan Martin doesn’t expect CLT to “pop” until at least 2018. He said he used to hear about it every time a developer was considering using CLT or a similar product, but no more. It’s a sign the product is taking hold, he said.

“The beauty of it is that I’m hearing about it less and less,” he said. “People are more used to it. They don’t think to tell me anymore.”

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Thomas Robinson, founding principal of LEVER Architecture, has long had a love of lumber.

“My interest in architecture started relatively young,” he said. “As a child I would go to my great-grandfather’s house in Cape Cod. The house happened to be made completely out of wood.”

Those were crucial formative trips for Robinson, 48, who grew up in the suburbs of Washington, D.C.

“I remember, as a kid, waking up and being amazed by the character and quality of being in the space that was so much about the character of the material,” he said. “That material created this really rich experience.”

The influence led to Robinson eventually becoming interested in making wood once again a major structural element in large structures. Enter cross-laminated timber (CLT). Robinson’s use of CLT was a big reason why he was named among the 2017 Emerging Voices in Architecture by the Architectural League of New York.

“Thomas came to our attention when he contacted us and showed us some of his work,” said Anne Rieselbach, the group’s program director. “We found the work interesting enough (that) we asked him to send in an entry.”

The Architectural League receives roughly 40 to 50 entries per year from across the country and Mexico. This year a jury selected about a dozen honorees. The idea is to spotlight individuals and firms with a distinct design voice potentially able to influence the discipline of architecture, landscape architecture and urban design.

Robinson’s work stood out to the nine-person jury, Rieselbach said.

“When the final decision is made, the technological and geographic diversity is taken into consideration,” she said. “There aren’t that many people that are making what he is making. His work is pretty singular.”

LEVER Architecture in 2015 won the Tall Wood Building prize for its design of the Framework tower in the Pearl District; construction is on tap to start later this year. LEVER and developer Project^ used a $1.8 million federal grant to implement a performance-based design process. Tests and processes used to show that traditional building materials meet building codes don’t work on CLT. Performance-based testing helps show that lumber is viable.

“What we have to do is, through performance-based design, is demonstrate that we are meeting the intent of code,” Robinson said.

Finding LEVER’s niche has been a journey on a long and twisting road. Robinson studied architecture at the University of California-Berkeley. He began his career with Joseph Esherick, an architect best known for designing the Hedgerow Houses in Sea Ranch, California.

“I went to Berkeley and that was a really amazing experience,” Robinson said. “Then I was really fortunate to work for this firm led by Joe Esherick, and he was the head of the architecture school at Berkeley.”

Esherick’s influence brought a sense of practicality to Robinson’s designs.

“He would always say, ‘How would a farmer do it?’ ” Robinson said. “That was sort of his mantra. I think that sort of simplicity was also tied to a sophistication of doing things really simply but beautifully.”

Robinson received a master’s degree in architecture from Harvard, and then began focusing his attention on institutional and cultural projects. While working with Herzog & de Meuron in Switzerland, he made some key personal and professional decisions.

“I really loved working in Switzerland,” he said. “I really wanted to live in a place where I could feel like I was part of that community and be contributing to that community as an architect and a citizen.

“Switzerland is an amazing place. (But) you’re never really truly part of the community as a foreigner.”

That desire powered Robinson’s move to Allied Works Architecture in 2003 and the decision to settle with his wife and two children in the Hawthorne neighborhood.

“Portland is open to the value of design,” he said. “It was also not as expensive as moving back to San Francisco.”

While with Allied Works Architecture, Robinson spent much of his time working on the University of Michigan’s Museum of Art. The project required nearly five years, during which he spent much of his time working away from Portland.

“I was very interested in working in the city I lived in,” he said. “There was a motivation for me to be more involved locally.”

Robinson was prompted him to strike out on his own in 2009 and create LEVER Architecture. The Great Recession was already making a dent in the industry.

“In a way it was the best,” he said. “You find yourself in a situation that you have to figure out what you are going to do. It was an opportunity to look at going in a new direction.”

He teamed up with Project^, working with its team on a variety of projects.

“Our companies have grown together,” said Tom Cody, managing partner at Project^. “Our practices relate well because of a shared set of values.”

Those values helped the companies grow even during one of the nation’s worst recessions.

“I remember pretty distinctly hiring our first employee, and I remember just being terrified about hiring the second one,” Robinson said. “I remember my wife and I talking about this momentous hire of our second employee.”

Now LEVER has a staff of 18. The firm operates in a North Albina Avenue building that it designed, using mass timber. The business is established enough now to be able to take risks such as use of CLT in tall buildings.

“He has a deep sense of regionalism,” Cody said of Robinson. “You build with what you have. With CLT, there is a linkage to the outdoors and to the peacefulness. LEVER is a good firm to lead that conversation.”

The two companies’ Framework tower, when completed, will be the tallest mass-timber building in North America. It’s designed to stand 148 feet – 11 stories of offices, residential units and retail space.

“What we are really interested in on many levels is challenging conventional ways of building,” Robinson said. “We want to bring rich architectural experience to the everyday.”

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“You’re standing on the tallest wood building in the United States,” said Ben Kaiser on top of his Carbon12 at North Williams Avenue and Northeast Fremont Street.

For the moment, he’s right. It’s also the first residential use of timber framing at its height in the U.S.

At 95 feet and eight stories, Carbon12 is a shade taller than architect ; the Minneapolis structure held the distinction for only a few months.

T3 and Carbon12 both employ mass timber in their structural systems – T3 with nail- and glue-laminated timber and Carbon12 with a hybrid of cross-laminated timber (CLT) and a steel core. Both were asked to compete in the USDA’s , though neither won. A different Portland wood skyscraper, the Framework tower, ended up splitting the $3 million prize with a now-scrapped New York City project.

The design competition, backed by the Obama administration, evidently helped invigorate the race to erect so-called wood skyscrapers in the U.S., a contest Portland is well-positioned to dominate.

Building codes in the U.S. for more than a century have discouraged use of wood framing in structures taller than five stories because of life safety concerns. CLT, however, especially in concert with other forms of mass timber, have the potential to change this. They’ve already been in use elsewhere – notably Europe and Canada – since the 1990s.

PATH forward

Kaiser, head of development firm Kaiser Group and design-build firm PATH Architecture, to many people represents the human face of gentrification in rapidly changing Northeast Portland. Heavy on sustainable features, PATH projects are described as the epitome of green building methods, sleek design and low environmental impact.

Kaiser wants Carbon12 to be a continuation – visually and thematically – of his One North mixed-use office project kitty-corner across the street. (The other half of the Carbon12 lot is planned to contain a 65-unit aging-in-place concept called The Canyons.)

The CLT panels were delivered to the site in 22 flatbed trucks with brackets and other attachments already installed, meaning the panels only had to be fitted into place with the tower crane. The crane itself was only on-site for two and a half months.

Carbon12 will have two units per floor. Recesses in the east and west sides of the building will have ivy running up them, as high as it will grow. Kaiser, a registered architect, was inspired by the concept of a “nurse log” – a fallen tree that then nurtures other life.

“Once a tree falls, it’s only lived about half its life,” he said. “It gives those nutrients to the next generations. It’s a fantastic way to think about architecture, especially at this moment with the advent of CLT.”

Though the building flaunts its wood, it actually employs all of the big three building materials. Steel is used in the core and braces that connect floor plates to the vertical columns. And concrete is used on the basement, ground floor and garage. (The automated garage represents another first for the U.S. The German-designed underground system will deliver drivers their vehicles without them ever needing to venture below-ground.)

Kaiser said it’s wrong to think of building materials in competitive terms, as some unions and industry groups have done.

“I really think everyone should just relax and let the products perform where they perform best,” he said. “There’s plenty of market for everybody, and I think that we all need to work together to make each other better, rather than trying to out-prove one another,” he said.

Kaiser received an undisclosed amount from the Softwood Lumber Board to help test aspects of his project. He said he and his firm will only build with mass timber from now on. He thinks one day the skyline of Portland will be dominated by wood.

“This is our way forward, and we’ll keep applying what we’ve learned,” he said.

Knocks on wood

The Framework team plans to celebrate the award of building permits from the state and the city later this month. But it has already notched many milestones. The project has won design review approval, and concept testing – fire, acoustic, seismic – has been carried out at laboratories around the country.

The team now is looking ahead to a 14-month construction schedule, starting in late summer.

“The piece we’re looking at now is the financing,” said Anyeley Hallova, a principal with project^. “It’s a complex project of affordable housing in it, market-rate office. It will take a little while now to put that all together.”

But Framework’s East Coast counterpart hasn’t had the same good fortune.

The ownership group split several months ago when it became clear the New York Fire Department remains reluctant to adopt mass-timber performance, according to sources close to the project. And the New York Building Department is still following the 2012 International Building Code, not the 2015 one, which is said to be more favorable to CLT.

“They’ve been reluctant to engage with developers who are willing to do performance-based approval,” said Jeff Spiritos, principal of Spiritos Properties. He said his business has moved on to working on other timber-based projects in cities more inclined to support them.

The Northeast is historically fire-conservative. It’s also the cradle of the U.S. steel industry, which, along with concrete, masonry and union concerns are hitting back against CLT proponents angling for market share. The National Ready Mixed Concrete Association last year started the “Build with Strength” public relations campaign to promote steel and concrete and warn against wider use of mass timber products.

One recent email blast about a failed attempt to allow some wood-framing in Florida school construction was headed, “Florida Building Commission Stands Strong for Students.”

Ethan Martin is an engineer serving as technical director of WoodWorks, a campaign of the Wood Products Council to promote mass-timber products. He said the steel and concrete industries lobbied in the 1950s and 1960s to get those products more widely used.

“At this point, they literally have 100-percent market share of anything over five stories. So even if there are only 10 buildings a year built using CLT, that’s going to cut into their market share,” Martin said.

Andrew Waugh, a prominent British CLT proponent, estimates that in Europe, where CLT has been in use since the 1990s, the product represents about 0.5 percent of building materials used in buildings taller than five stories.

Getting the code changed to allow CLT is important, but Greg Kingsley, head of KL&A Structural Engineers and Builders in Denver says that more critical to CLT’s success right now are the local building officials.

Portland officials have made allowances for the use of alternative materials in high-rises. KL&A’s Platte 15 CLT concept was originally planned to be 15 stories, but Kingsley said it was bumped down to five to satisfy the Denver Building Department, which wasn’t willing to make an exception.

“Maybe in the Pacific Northwest, the forest industry is closer to your hearts; in Denver – maybe not so much,” he said. “Look, don’t blame the building officials. They’re just doing their job. They’re waiting for the proof … You should be proud your local building officials in Portland are innovative enough to want to be on the bleeding edge of this.”

CLT isn’t cheap, but can be made due to the speed of construction. Developer Farid Bolouri is hoping to achieve feasibility this way in St. Johns, where residents often are hostile toward intrusive developments. Alan Jones is designing a dense four-story apartment building on a small, centrally located lot. Cutting down on construction impacts is key to project success, Jones said.

“I’ve been watching (Carbon12) go up. I said, I think we can go faster,” he said.

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