Monthly Update: December 2019

The United States experiences more than 1,000 tornadoes annually, more than any other country worldwide. These storms cause billions of dollars in damage and kill 60 people each year on average.

Researchers at the Forest Products Laboratory (FPL) have developed an 8′x8′ residential tornado shelter made of wood that meets industry safety standards and can be built into an existing home using readily available materials and tools. FPL has partnered with the Home Innovation Research Labs to produce outreach and instructional guides and videos to support homeowners in appropriately siting, designing, and building the shelter.

Access these resource materials and videos here.

Retail giant Walmart has given sustainability priority in its plans for a new Home Office project in Bentonville, Arkansas, which will replace its existing patchwork of offices in more than 20 buildings across the city.

All structures making up the new 350-acre Home Office campus will be designed to create zero waste and operate with 100% renewable energy; many will be built using CLT manufactured in Arkansas. Walmart Executive Vice President Dan Bartlett expects that the campus will become the largest CLT project in the United States.

According to Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, the project “will drive the economy in terms of the loggers and those that are producing the timber” and through “the preparation of the cross laminated timber. Those are going to be another set of jobs from this.”

The project’s first phase began in summer 2019, and the entire project is scheduled to be completed in 2024.

Architectural Record joined the SLB and other media outlets in taking note of the University of Arkansas’ recently opened Adohi Hall. Adohi—named for the Cherokee word meaning “woods”—is a 200,000-square-foot, two-volume-timber complex, covering four acres and with the capacity to house 708 students.

Adohi was designed by Boston-based Leers Weinzapfel Associates in collaboration with Mackey Mitchell Architects, OLIN, and Modus Studio. According to Leers Weinzapfel Associates principal Tom Chung, “The mass timber design reimagines the traditional notion of campus housing as a building on a quad lawn,” instead channeling “a cabin in the woods, where building and landscape are woven together.” The design team specified sustainably sourced European spruce, pine, and fir trees for structural components, and it used local cypress for interior detailing as “an example of a new sustainable way of building our campuses.”

Read more about Adohi Hall here.

This year’s Greenbuild conference featured the formal launch of the Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator (EC3), a free, open-access tool designed to empower users to learn how buildings and infrastructure can radically reduce embodied carbon.

Created by the Carbon Leadership Forum with inputs from nearly 50 industry leaders, EC3 allows for supply chain–specific analysis of embodied carbon data, using the first searchable and sortable database of U.S. and Canadian environmental product declarations (EPDs) for concrete, steel, wood, glass, aluminum, insulation, gypsum, carpet, and ceiling tiles. EC3 is also the first tool to create a consolidated, digital EPD form for viewing and analyzing the data. This will allow users to easily estimate upfront embodied carbon emissions associated with material production and construction processes, and make informed decisions to reduce embodied carbon within buildings.

Learn more about the tool here.

Analysts expect that recent changes to California’s building code relating to seismic requirements will force developers to take a closer and more frequent look at CLT and other lightweight, innovative construction methods. Particularly in light of the Bay Area’s high costs, CLT is a uniquely favorable option, thanks to its shortened construction schedules and reduced labor costs. As such, proponents see an opportunity for CLT to be an asset in increasing the Bay Area’s supply of multifamily housing.

Speaking about the code changes at the Bisnow’s NorCal multifamily conference, DCI Engineers Vice President Jeff Brink said, “For high-rises in the 12- to 24-story range, you could be looking at seismic force increases on the magnitude of 75% or 80% higher than what we’re currently designing for, which translates to a lot of potential added cost to the structure. . . . The best way you can mitigate the seismic impact on your building is to reduce its weight.”

Read more about the California building communities adoption of CLT here.