Forest Journalism for a Sustainable Future
Editor’s note: What is mass timber? Sometimes called “advanced timber,” this relatively new and as-yet evolving building product takes several forms. For a primer on products in the mass timber family, we turned to rethinkwood.com. We think you’ll find their definitions useful in better understanding and engaging in discussions about the use of mass timber in our built environment. [Read more…]
Oregon is bullish on the future of high-rises built from locally sourced wood, and Portland is the proof.
At last month’s Mass Timber Conference, an all-day tour took visitors to a few of the city’s timber buildings – from a fire station made from wood, including fire-charred siding on the entranceway, to Carbon 12, a classy condominium development in North Portland that, at eight stories, is the nation’s tallest wood building.
At Albina Yards, Lever Architecture founder Thomas Robinson not only touted that four-story masterpiece – the nation’s first to use domestically produced cross-laminated timber (known as CLT) for its structural system – but also his next project: Framework, a skyscraper built of wood. [Read more…]
Most of us know Chuck Leavell from what he calls his “night job,” as the longtime keyboardist for the Rolling Stones.
But Leavell has another gig, and he attacks it with equal fervor: forestry.
Whether managing his 3,000-acre pine and oak plantation in southern Georgia or touring the country preaching the need for widespread forest restoration, Leavell is a passionate advocate for the use and perpetuation of America’s forests.
Now he’s taking that advocacy another step with the production of a documentary television series, “America’s Forests with Chuck Leavell,” which aired its premiere episode earlier this month on Oregon Public Broadcasting and at the International Mass Timber Conference in Portland. (You can watch it online here.)
Big timber is sprouting up in cities in North America and abroad. After years of feasibility studies and design proposals, buildings six stories or taller constructed primarily from pre-engineered wood products are being considered in cities around the world.
In London, one proposal, called the Splinter, would rise to 100 stories. In Chicago, Perkins+Will (in collaboration with Thornton Tomasetti and the University of Cambridge) has designed an 80-story high-rise with 300 duplex apartments. If built, River Beech—a key component of P+W’s master plan for the Riverline development—would be made almost entirely from mass timber. [Read more…]