News in engineered wood products mass timber

The new main terminal at Portland Oregon’s International Airport (PDX) is starting to take shape. The construction of the massive, undulating wood roof is set to be the crowning jewel of PDX’s $2 billion expansion. The 392,000-square-foot mass timber roof is being put together like a huge 3-D puzzle about a mile away from the new terminal.

Segezha Group, a subsidiary of Sistema PJSFC, has begun supplying the Japanese market with glue laminated timber and structural glue laminated beams. The first shipment (10 containers) shipped from the Sokol Woodworking Plant JSC and was sold to the Sojitz Building Materials Corporation.

Working in conjunction with the Santa Monica, California-based real estate firm Redcar Properties and Portland, Oregon-based architecture and design firm Lever Construction, Boston-based Shawmut Design and Construction is constructing a 75-foot-tall, 125,000 square-foot mixed-use office building in Los Angeles using cross-laminated timber.

Google, the global technology giant, has engaged Vancouver, British Columbia-based Michael Green Architecture to serve as the lead designer on their first ever mass-timber office in Sunnyvale, California. The five-story, 182,000 square-foot-facility is scheduled for completion in 2022.

Timber Age Systems Inc., a Durango, Colorado based company that specializes in making cross-laminated timber (CLT) for sustainable building projects, has announced its plans to expand its manufacturing capacity and develop a new facility after receiving a grant from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s Recycling Resources Economic Opportunity Program.

The 39-story Sydney Tower, billed as the world’s tallest hybrid timber tower when it was first unveiled in 2020, has been approved. The Shop Architects and BVN’s $1 billion (A$) will be the new home of Atlassian, the Australian tech company. The tower adjoins Sydney’s Central Station and it is intended to be a linchpin of the state government’s planned technology precinct.

Metsä Wood and its partners have developed a hybrid sandwich wall element that they believe will renew offsite construction. The innovation combines concrete with Kerto LVL (laminated veneer lumber). The lighter weight of the hybrid sandwich wall elements proved to be a valuable benefit.

According to Patrick Crabbe, who oversees everything from pre-construction to execution for all of Bird Construction’s mass timber projects in Canada, supply chain difficulties have led to extended lead times on commodities such as steel I-joist and pre-engineered building components. These difficulties are creating new opportunities for mass timber products in the construction of low-rise commercial buildings in Canada.