CLT post at the Urbanist

The Urbanist has a short article on cross laminated timber by Susan Jones, FAIA. The article contains some background on the blue beetle effect in Canadian forests as well as an update on domestic production of CLT.

See more at:


http://www.theurbanist.org/2015/10/15/clt-whats-all-the-excitement-about/

U.S. Tall Wood Building Prize Competition Names Winning Designs

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced the award of funding to support development of two tall wood buildings in the U.S. Two teams will split $3 million in funding to support the research and development of their proposed projects.  The contest required buildings at least 80 feet tall using mass-timber (such as cross laminated timber) and other engineered-wood.

One winner is 475 W. 18th, a 10-story residential high-rise in New York. 
Architect: SHoP Architects,
Consultants: Arup, Icor Consulting Engineers, Atelier Ten
Developer: Spiritos Properties

The other winner is Framwork, a 12-story multi-use building in Portland Oregon's Pearl District
(residential, office, commercial, and community spaces)
Architect:  LEVER Architecture
Consultants: KPFF
Developer: Project

More on the projects:
http://www.architectmagazine.com/technology/us-tall-wood-building-prize-competition-names-winning-designs_o
USDA Press Release
http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?contentid=2015%2F09%2F0259.xml

Developer Plans to Build a Seven-Story, Wooden Office Building in Downtown Minneapolis

Hines is hiring Michael Green Architecture to design a seven-story office building in Minneapolis as part of the Tall Wood Building Prize Competition. If approved it would be the tallest modern all-timber structure in the U.S..  Michael Green just completed the tallest wood structure in Canada, Wood Innovation and Design Centre, in Prince George, B.C..

http://online.wsj.com/articles/towering-ambition-tallest-wood-office-building-deal-of-the-week-1415755448

Autosport Building Tour

The SEAW sustainability committee will tour the building formerly known as Autosport in South Lake Union on September 10 at 3pm, for about a one-hour tour. Thanks to Adam and Lund Ophsal for the opportunity to visit the building. We have room for up to 10 people on the tour, so RSVP for your spot soon. We’ll start a waiting list if things fill up.

Autosport building tour

September 10, 3-4pm

2121 Westlake Ave, Seattle

Description:

The Autosport building was originally built in the 1920’s and is a two story building with a basement. The basement and first floor consist of reinforced concrete construction, the first and second floor walls are comprised of unreinforced masonry (URM), and the second floor and roof are wood construction. The project will remove and replace the roof, retrofit the existing structure below, and add two additional floors. The building will be approximately 26,000 square feet. The new use will be the Maximus/Minimus restaurant, Sugar Mountain Bakery, and offices.
The new lateral system consists of four special steel concentric braced frames, one at each exterior wall. The new floors are heavy timber framed with T&G and plywood sheathing. Existing floors will be re-sheathed with plywood and tied into the new braced frames. The existing URM walls will remain but additional framing and support will be installed to brace the URM walls for out of plane loading.
Sustainable features are the retrofit and reuse of existing materials and the extensive use of wood in new construction, both of which have lower embodied energy and carbon footprint than new steel or concrete. The project is not pursuing LEED certification, but will meet current Seattle Energy Code.

May Committee Meeting Minutes and Next Meeting

The minutes for last month's meeting are here.

One thing not mentioned at the last meeting is that Michael Green and Eric Karsh were keynote speakers at the PSU Symposium.   It was the same talk featuring their mass timber projects presented at the SEFW last fall, but there is a recording for those who want to watch: http://vimeo.com/92475801

Our next meeting will be at Coughlin Porter Lundeen again.  We will follow up on the energy code and talk about other potential projects.  Participate in the Doodle poll to select a meeting date.

USDA announces high-rise wood design competition in partnership with Wood Works

Last week, the USDA announced they will be creating a wood construction training program and high-rise design competition in partnership with Wood Works and the Binational Softwood Lumber Council. Up to $1M will be allocated for the design competition.

The Secretary also announced plans to launch a new prize competition, expected to begin later this year, for developers, institutions, organizations and design teams competing to demonstrate the architectural and commercial viability of using sustainable wood products in high-rise construction. The Department is planning to invest up to $1 million to launch the competition. One non-profit partner, the Binational Softwood Lumber Council, has committed an additional $1 million for the competition. The competition will help spur increased sustainability in construction and will give priority to applicants that source materials from rural domestic manufacturers and domestic, sustainably-managed forests.

This announcement follows last year's Canadian support for timber high-rise construction, with the Canadian Wood Council and Natural Resources Canada offering a similar amount for innovative wood design showcase projects.

For more information, see the press release from the USDA.

On a related note, our committee member, Hans-Erik Blomgren from the White House for USDA Tall Wood Workshop. Presentations are here http://www.fs.fed.us/spf/coop/wood.shtml
 

Sustainability Presentation by WoodWorks

WoodWorks, the education cooperative of the Wood Products Council, is holding a lunch and learn about the sustainability of wood construction.  From their announcement:

Building for the Future: How Wood Contributes to Sustainable Construction

This course will examine how the use of wood as a structural material in buildings contributes to their environmental performance.  Attendees will learn how to quantify the sustainability of their building designs through life cycle assessment (LCA) and Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs).  Discussion will include the impact of wood on a building's carbon footprint, and the effects of timber harvesting practices on North American forests over the past 100 years.  Wood-based framing systems and details will be presented to demonstrate material and energy-efficient options available, including alternate systems and techniques such as cross laminated timber (CLT) and advanced framing.

 The seminar is from 11am to 2pm on October 24 at the Morton Steakhouse in Seattle.  It costs $20 which includes lunch.  Register here.

Update: The slides from the presentation are available here among other Woodworks presentations.

Cross-Laminated Timber at University of North British Columbia

 At the SEFW annual forum, Michael Green and and J. Eric Karsh presented on a variety of wood-panel buildings, including the UNBC engineering building. The building will spotlight CLT construction with an innovative floor system and walls. You can watch construction at the UNBC website, link below.

http://www.unbc.ca/engineering/watch-construction-future-home-engineering-live#!

December Committee Meeting and Past Minutes

Our upcoming meeting is Wednesday December 4th at KPFF.  Since our usual meeting time of the 4^th Wednesday of the month conflicts with Thanksgiving this month, we are moving to December 4^th.  This will be our last meeting this year.  We are looking for someone willing to host meetings at a Seattle office in the new year.

Our December meeting will continue our series on the sustainability of cross-laminated timber and wood design.  We will feature Myer Harrell and Kirsten Clemens from Weber Thompson to discuss the architectural considerations for tall CLT buildings.    

Image courtesy of Weber Thompson

We will also recap the Tall Wood presentation by Michael Green.

We have the availability for web and audio conference at the meeting if requested.  

Last month’s meeting minutes here.

Athena Releases Update to its Impact Estimator for Buildings Software

Athena Sustainable Materials Institute has released an update to it's Impact Estimator software for environmental life cycle assessments.

The Impact Estimator is a free and compliant whole building LCA software for those seeking the LCA credits in Green Globes® and LEED® (v4 and MR pilot credit 63). The update is available for download from Athena's LCA Tools site, calculatelca.com. 

Enhancements and updates captured in this version: 

• New and updated cradle-to-grave North American steel product data;
• New GAF TPO roofing membrane data;
• Supports new user defined concrete mix designs and blended cements;
• Includes latest CORRIM US regional wood product data;
• New Canadian wood products data (LVL, I-joists and CLT);
• Updated end-of-life landfill process data;
• New bio-products carbon accounting scenarios including end-of-life effects;
• Updated metal building systems LCI data and assembly quantity take-offs;
• Full compatibility with US EPA's TRACI v2.1 characterization method; and
• New software "Auto Update" capability.

One interesting development is the end-of-life effects. As we have discussed in our meetings, wood can have varying impacts to the air (greenhouse gas release) if it is burned or decomposes at the end of its life.  More about the treatment of biogenic carbon is discussed here: http://structureandsustainability.blogspot.com/2011/12/q5-lca-tools-and-data-collection.html

Wood for Jet Fuel?

Here is the woody biomass jet fuel initiative Hans-Erik Blomgren mentioned at the October committee meeting.

www.nararenewables.org

NARA Works to Harness Woody Biomass for Aviation Biofuel

Featuring a broad alliance of private industry and educational institutions, the Northwest Advanced Renewables Alliance (NARA) takes a holistic approach to building a supply chain for aviation biofuel with the goal of increasing efficiency in everything from forestry operations to conversion processes. Using a large variety of feedstocks, from construction waste to forest residues, the project aims to create a sustainable industry to produce aviation biofuels and important co-products.

WSU and others have been getting large grants off of this.

http://www.nararenewables.org/news/releases/usdagrant

And like pretty much anything these days, you can follow NARA on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/NARA_Renewables

Thanks, Hans-Erik!

Happy Hour for SEFW Fall Forum on Tall Wood

If you haven't read your newest SEAW Equilibrium, This Thursday is the Structural Engineers Foundation Fall Forum.  The presentation is "Tall Wood: How Timber Suddenly Decided to Grow Up." The presenters are architect, Michael Green, and structural engineer, Erik Karsh. Both are leading the international movement for expanded use of heavy timber from nearby Vancouver, British Columbia.

As Michael calls it “the most technologically advanced material grown by the sun,” wood has earned its place alongside steel and concrete in the construction of large institutional and commercial projects such as international airports, municipal halls, university buildings
and yes, high-rises. Wood has gone high tech, and if you are in the building business, you should know about it.

The presentation starts at 6:00pm, this Thursday, November 21 at Benaroya Hall. Admission is free, but registration is required through SEAW.  

One of the reasons wood is gaining attention is its sustainability, made by solar power and absorbing carbon dioxide in the process. The sustainability committee of SEAW has been hosting a series of presentations on sustainability of wood, and this is another opportunity to discuss the topic.

As a primer for the presentation, meet members of the SEAW sustainability committee for happy hour at the Triple Door (next to Benaroya) before the lecture starting at 4:30PM. 

And join us at our next meeting, noon on December 4th at KPFF, to hear more about the state of the art of sustainable wood construction, where architects Myer Harrell and Kirsten Clemens ‎of Weber Thompson will talk about their design to push the height limit of wood buildings in Seattle.‎

Generic EPDs for wood

The American Wood Council, in coordination with the Canadian Wood Council, has produced a series of generic EPDs for a variety of commonly-used wood products. These EPDs can be used to aid in a whole-building LCA or to count towards the EPD-related credit in the upcoming LEED v4.

Find more at: http://www.awc.org/greenbuilding/epd.html​