News in engineered wood products mass timber

The Softwood Lumber Board and the US Department of Agriculture Forest Service Department jointly announced on Wednesday that the Forest Service’s second annual “Mass Timber Competition: Building to Net-Zero Carbon” is now open for proposals from eligible teams.

Adera Development, the Vancouver, BC-based homebuilder, is at the cutting edge of mass timber construction in the province. According to reporting by SiteNews, Adera recently surpassed the 500 mark on its commitment to deliver 1,000 mass timber homes in Metro Vancouver.

Jamestown, a design-focused real estate investment and management firm, announced the beginning of vertical construction on 619 Ponce, a four-story mass timber loft building located in Atlanta. The building is being constructed with locally grown Georgia timber.

Elementary school students in Kamloops, BC, will soon benefit from a modern new school. The BC provincial government has provided $65.3 million (CAD) for a new 485-seat elementary school. Mass timber will be used in the new school’s design, where appropriate.

Construction is underway on a new mass timber dining and operations center project on a 900-acre property at the University of Toronto’s Koffler Scientific Reserve, according to Daily Commercial News (2-21-23). The new center will include bunk rooms, classrooms and meeting space, and a common kitchen area.

Tokyo-based Sumitomo Forestry Co. announced on February 1st that it has jointly established three companies—Bywater SFC Holdings, Bywater SFC Management, and Bywater SFC Investments (collectively Bywater SFC)—with British real estate developer Bywater properties.

Hasslacher Group announced earlier in the week that it has acquired a 40% stake in Egoin Wood Group. Based in Spain, the Egoin Wood Group is an international timber industry company with a total production capacity of 22,000 m3 engineered timber products.

Designed by All Hands Architecture and billed as a “deeply affordable” by its developers, Chiles House in Portland is considered the first completed mass timber affordable housing in Oregon. The building’s 27 units provide transitional housing.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is already the home of the world’s tallest mass timber structure. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the Ascent could soon be joined by another equally tall, or perhaps taller, mass timber building in downtown Milwaukee.

Colorado-based architecture firm Tres Birds has confirmed that construction on the city’s tallest mass timber building will commence in July 2023, according to the Construction Specifier magazine. The project was one of six winners in the Softwood Lumber Board (SLB) and USDA Forest Service 2022 Mass Timber Competition: Building to Net-zero.