Monthly Update: July 2020

According to reporting from the U.S. Census Bureau, privately-owned housing starts in May were 4.3% above the revised April estimate; single-family starts were nearly flat at 0.1% above the revised April estimate. However, permits for both segments came in substantially above revised April estimates, at 14.4% and 11.9% above, respectively. This bump in permitting foretells much-needed future gains for single-family starts. Since reaching its year-to-date peak in February, the pace of single-family construction has declined 35% as of May.

Construction starts for the multifamily sector increased 15% in May compared with the revised April estimate; however, the segment has seen a 52% decline relative to its strong start in January 2020. NAHB anticipates that multifamily construction will decline more than single-family as a result of the 2020 downturn.

Read more here and here.

Upbrella Construction, in Brossard, Quebec, will soon begin construction of a 12-story CLT/concrete hybrid tower in Monaco without the assistance of a crane. Upbrella’s engineering system instead relies on a combination of off-site construction and elevator-type actuators, which lift components into place when ready.

Monaco strictly regulates noise emanating from construction sites, so Upbrella’s system offers a feasible and cost-efficient way to comply. Approximately 80% of construction will be done at worker-height under a shelter, thus also minimizing safety risks.

Read more about the project here.

The North American Wholesale Lumber Association recently launched the Keep Up campaign to help educators, students, and soon-to-be graduates learn more about the promising career opportunities lumber offers and how the industry is an important tool in the fight against climate change. The campaign stresses the competitive benefits and salaries, diverse opportunities, and innovation found in the industry. It also seeks to reverse outdated stereotypes that are hindering the industry from attracting the next generation of its workforce.

Read more about the campaign here.

Structural engineering firm Fast + Epp has released a new online design tool—Timber Bay Design Tool—to help architects, designers, developers, and builders explore mass timber for their projects. The tool provides mass timber member sizes, volume outputs, and a 3D visualization of any mass timber grid, along with structural depth and material takeoffs. The Timber Bay Design Tool is part of Fast + Epp’s Concept Lab collection of web applications.

Read more here.

The Faculty of Forestry at the University of British Columbia (UBC), in partnership with FPInnovations and spatial analytics firm LlamaZOO, was recently awarded a $300,000 UBC Ignite grant to further develop and commercialize TimberOps, a new immersive-analytics platform for improved forest operations and land management.

TimberOps creates digital landscapes using different datasets that incorporate all aspects of forest-management planning, from road surveying to cutblock planning. Users then access and explore these landscapes—however vast—using virtual reality. In addition to refining TimberOps, funding will also support a training and demonstration facility for UBC forestry students and industry members to support the use of data in landscape-level forest resources management.

Read more here.

In Kelowna, British Columbia, early adoption of provincial regulations allowing for tall wood construction projects has paved the way for a 12-story mass timber hotel tower, which is being developed by RPB Hotels and Resorts and designed by HRD. Construction is expected to start in 2021, and once complete, the building will be the first wood-frame high-rise and the tallest mass timber tower in the city.

The tower will be constructed using partial encapsulation and exposed CLT and glue laminated timber; exposed wood will punctuate the interior and exterior. The developers pursued mass timber from the start because of its environmental benefits, potential savings in construction, unparalleled aesthetics, and the city’s connection to the forestry industry.

Read more about the project here.

British designer Thomas Heatherwick was purposeful in specifying wood when designing a new Maggie’s Centre within St. James’ University Hospital, in Leeds, England. Maggie’s Centre is a network of centers that provide free cancer support and information across the United Kingdom. Heatherwick chose wood to create an environment that is “soulful and welcoming, unlike other typical clinical environments.” The project, now complete, features an ample timber structure and a green roof.

Read more about the project here.

CLT manufacturer Vaagen Timbers is partnering with the Washington State Department of Natural Resources on a forest health initiative to cultivate local economic benefits while also reducing wildfires and the damage they cause.

Under the initiative, the Department of Natural Resources removes small-diameter, diseased, and dying trees and underbrush from publicly owned land, which firms like Vaagen then use to manufacture CLT and other wood products, sustaining jobs and helping to meet growing market demand. Vaagen, based in Colville, Washington, currently has the capacity to produce approximately 2 million square feet of three-ply CLT annually and sources about half of its wood from public lands under the program.

The program is also delivering the fire-management impact sought by the state, with the number of acres burned annually declining as acres thinned goes up. According to Hilary Franz, the state’s commissioner of public lands, the forest health initiative is creating “a huge environmental and economic win that we often don’t see enough of.”

Read more here.