Louisiana Tech’s Forest Products Innovation Center Scheduled to Open This Fall

A new mass timber research facility nearing completion on Louisiana Tech University’s south campus is expected to open this fall, giving students and researchers access to one of the first buildings of its kind in Louisiana, the Lincoln Parish Journal reported (5-14-26).

Jed Walpole, architect and partner at Walpole Architects, said the Forest Products Innovation Center was designed as a fully mass timber structure. While such buildings are more common in Europe and the Pacific Northwest, Walpole said they remain rare in Louisiana.

The project incorporates glulam beams and columns, along with CLT. “Every piece of wood in this building, whether it’s CLT, glulam, or stud walls, is Southern yellow pine,” Walpole said.

The building will primarily serve as a research center and will include a classroom, laboratory spaces, a large testing lab, and a wood-processing lab. Plans also call for a kiln, an environmental chamber, and other specialized equipment.