News in offsite construction

At a ribbon cutting ceremony held on Friday (7-9-21), the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources officially opened the new Eagle Tower Observation Deck in Door County, Wisconsin. Eagle Tower is 60 feet high. The DNR says the tower was built using “new wood technology.” Construction included glulam, which is described as a “stress-rated engineered wood beam.”

The world’s first hardwood Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) has been officially launched by CLTP Tasmania and along with it their new brand CUSP Building Solutions. Cusp CLT is sourced from certified sustainable Tasmanian Plantation Oak (Eucalyptus Nitens), grown on the Island State of Tasmania, Australia.

A recent report produced by the Canadian federal government’s Green Construction Through Wood (GC Wood) program, “The State of Mass Timber Industry in Canada (SMTC) 2021”, shows just how far mass timber has come since the first two Canadian plants in Quebec and B.C. established cross-laminated timber production lines more than a decade ago.

Canadian-based Structurlam Mass Timber Corp. announced in December 2019 that it would invest $90 million to buy, retrofit, and equip a former steel plant in Conway, Arkansas. In a recent interview, Hardy Wentzel, Structurlam CEO is reporting, “We are trending right on track with our project schedule, our budget is working out well, and our staffing plans are where they need to be at this point.”

Mass timber construction is increasingly finding its place in midrise residential construction, as well as the commercial and office niche markets. Mass timber construction is also finding its place in other areas, including the educational sector.

Swinerton Inc., the Portland Oregon based, 100% employee-owned company, has announced that it will be transitioning the Swinerton Mass Timber brand to Timberlab, while reinforcing the company’s general contracting roots and retaining the company’s vision of the mainstream adoption of mass timber construction.

The town of Ashland Maine recently joined a new initiative that has as its goal to begin investing in a more environmentally sustainable wood building product. Original Mass Timber Maine is a three-year market development program with the goal of opening at least one facility to manufacture original mass timber, also known as structural round timber (SRT), within the next two years.

According to people familiar with the matter, Katerra, the six-year-old startup construction company, told its employees in a video call on Tuesday (6-1-21) that it plans to shut down. The executive on the video said the effects of COVID-19, as well as rising costs of labor and construction materials contributed to the company’s latest cash crunch.

A recent Think Tank entitled “Working with Timber – New Possibilities for Design, Construction and Sustainability” brought experts from the design and timber industry together to discuss and celebrate this remarkable transformation.

U.S. Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden (both from Oregon) have announced that over $1.6 million in federal funds that will support mass wood products production and affordable housing construction are on their way to Oregon through a program Merkley spearheaded back in 2018.