Monthly Update: April 2020

When news of U.S. COVID-19 restrictions broke, WoodWorks quickly pivoted its project support and education activities to online platforms – something its team was well positioned to do since the staff members commonly work remotely. WoodWorks also reached out to its clients, nationally and regionally, to let them know that WoodWorks is now available across multiple platforms and can provide uninterrupted services.

WoodWorks uses Zoom video conferencing to provide project support and conduct virtual “lunch and learns” so architecture, engineering, and construction professionals can continue to expand their knowledge of wood design.

The quarterly education offerings by WoodWorks will include two wood design symposiums and eight workshops, all locally relevant and delivered via online platforms. This is in addition to its existing, nationally focused monthly webinars.

Keep track of these and other upcoming virtual offerings here.

Think Wood sponsored the Carbon Positive conference March 4-6, in Los Angeles. The conference – a “how to” for planning, designing, and building a low-carbon future, which drew more than 400 attendees – was organized by ARCHITECT Magazine and Architecture 2030. Speakers included representatives from Arup, Google, the Nature Conservancy, World Bank Group, Carbon Leadership Forum, Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, MASS Design Group, and WoodWorks.

A founding sponsor, Build With Strength, hosted conference content on carbon-sequestering concrete. Think Wood’s continued sponsorship of industry-leading events ensures that wood’s message is front and center of trending conversations about carbon reduction from the built environment.

The American Wood Council (AWC) has released an updated version of its free Maximum Span Calculator for Wood Joists and Rafters app, which includes updated design values for lumber as found in the 2018 National Design Specification® (NDS) for Wood Construction Supplement.

The calculator provides an easy way for designers, builders, and code officials to determine maximum allowable spans for lumber while working in the office or the field. Among its functions, the calculator can perform calculations for all species and grades of commercially available softwood and hardwood lumber, apply common uniform loading conditions, adjust for wet service conditions such as for outdoor deck joists, and enable users to compare multiple species and grades at a time.

The updated Span Calculator is available free in the Android, iOS, and Windows app stores. An updated, web-based version will be released this year.

The March issue of Architectural Record featured a Think Wood category-exclusive editorial CEU sponsorship, written by the magazine’s editors. The piece, “Time for Timber,” spotlights the Billie Jean King Main Library in California, a SOM mass timber project and WoodWorks 2020 Wood Design Awards winner. Think Wood’s sponsorship included a full-page print ad and web banners next to the CEU course online. Several other articles in the March issue profiled wood building projects – including dormitories at the Rhodes Island School of Design, a youth hostel in South Africa, and the Catalyst building at Eastern Washington University – spotlighting innovative applications of mass timber and CLT in green building.

Reach the March issue here.

California recently announced the winners of its first-ever Mass Timber Building Competition, which was administered by WoodWorks and organized under the state’s Forest Management Task Force. Winners include the California College of the Arts, Skid Row Housing Trust, Orange County Sanitation District, and Sunnydale Development Company; together their proposed projects represent nearly 325,000 square feet of new mass timber construction.

California’s goals in promoting mass timber through the competition comprised stimulating demand for mass timber buildings, generating investment in in-state production capacity, creating economic opportunities in rural areas, increasing affordable housing stock in cities, and advancing California’s climate change and green building objectives.

According to Jennifer Cover, President and CEO of WoodWorks, “Increased use of mass timber can benefit forest health and rural economic development, while reducing carbon emissions related to construction in California. The winning projects further highlight the design possibilities of timber and encourage wider adoption of its use throughout the state and across the country.”

Read more about the competition and benefits of mass timber here.

A team composed of MIT architects and design and construction firm Placetailor recently revealed plans for a new five-story, mixed-use structure in Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood that will be both net-zero energy and made entirely of wood. The project’s design was supported by a U.S. Forest Service wood innovation grant in 2018 aimed at developing a mass timber-based system for midscale housing developments. The new, 14-unit Boston building will be the first demonstration of the system developed by MIT and Placetailor.

The building’s structure will be made from cross laminated timber (CLT), and it will be assembled on site mostly from factory-built subunits, which will optimize the building’s energy efficiency. The building’s net carbon emissions will be near zero and less than half that of a comparable building made with conventional steel or concrete.

Read more about the project, which was BLSC funded, here.