Brunswick, Maine’s Bowdoin College is soon to become home of the first complete mass timber commercial structure in the state of Maine and also the first commercial structure in Maine to utilize a mass timber lateral system to resist wind and seismic loads.
News in offsite construction
Stora Enos Joins Build-in-Wood Consortium
The Build-in-Wood project Consortium, which consists of 21 partners from 11 different countries, covering the entire wood value chain from factory to final construction, announced on Tuesday (8-31-21) that Stora Enso, a leading provider of sustainable wood-based solutions for the construction industry, was joining the Build-in-Wood Consortium.
MTI Researchers to Seek Answer: Can Ontario’s Wood Supply Keep up with Growing Mass Timber Usage?
The up-and-coming new material for sustainable building is mass timber. Mass timber could be part of the climate change solution and become the cornerstone of the Province of Ontario’s economic and environmental future. The question now is can supply keep up with the rising demand? Researchers at the University of Toronto’s Daniels Faculty’s Mass Timber Institute (MTI) are about to go in search of that answer.
Timber Construction as a Potential Significant Carbon Sink?
The United Nations climate change conference — COP26 — is scheduled to begin in Glasgow Scotland on Sunday, October 31, 2021. There will be much to discuss, most notably the findings recently released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC) in its Sixth Assessment Report.
Element5’s New St. Thomas, Ontario Factory is Industry Certified and Running at Full Strength
Element5’s new St. Thomas, Ontario factory is now industry-certified and running at full strength. The new plant lays claim to being the most fully automated mass-timber plant in the world. Combined with an existing factory in Ripon, Quebec, Element5 now has the capacity to produce over 50,000 cubic meters of CLT and glulam per year.
Michigan State University STEM Complex First Building in Michigan to use CLT as its Load-Bearing Structure
Michigan State University, located in East Lansing, Michigan, has taken a former 1940’s power plant and integrated with two laboratory wings to create an Innovation Center for Learning and Technology. The 176,000gsf teaching facility was the first building in Michigan to use cross-laminated timber (CLT) as its load-bearing structure.
Toronto and Region Conservation Authority’s New Headquarters to “Set the Standard” for Sustainable Commercial Building Design
The construction of the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority’s (TCRA) new $65 million (CAD) headquarters, a structure that is being made almost entirely of wood, is well underway. The mid-rise office building is begin touted as one of North America’s most sustainable buildings.
USDA Forest Service Awards $15 Million in Grants to Expand the Use Of Wood Products
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service recently announced the awarding of more than $15 million to fund 60 projects. The grants were provided to help in the development and expansion in the use of wood products, strengthen emerging wood energy markets, and protect community forests.
Mercer International Acquires State-of-the-Art CLT Manufacturing Facility in Spokane, Washington
Mercer International, which operates or jointly operates several pulp and paper operations in Canada and Germany and runs a timber service in Germany, announced on Wednesday (8-3-21) that it has received approval from a U.S. bankruptcy court to acquire a state-of-the-art cross-laminated timber (CLT) manufacturing facility in Spokane, Washington.
Volumetric Building Companies to Acquire Former Katerra Headquarters in Tracy, California
Volumetric Building Companies (VBC), the Philadelphia PA-based modular builder, is in the final stages of a completing a $25-million bankruptcy acquisition of Katerra’s former Tracy, California headquarters. VBC has been selected as the final bidder in a deal that will ultimately bring $60 million of manufacturing equipment.