New green wood building product takes off in Oregon


Oregon is set to become a hub of a new type of wooden building design as a southern Oregon timber company becomes the first certified manufacturer of a high-tech wood product, known as cross-laminated timber, or CLT.

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Oregon is set to become a hub of a new type of wooden building design as a southern Oregon timber company becomes the first certified manufacturer of a high-tech wood product, known as cross-laminated timber, or CLT.

Governor Kate Brown announced today at clean tech conference Oregon BEST FEST that family-owned timber company D.R. Johnson has gained certification to become the nation’s first supplier of CLT. The product, which consists of massive panels of engineered wood, are used to build tall wooden buildings, and could even become the next generation of the world’s skyscrapers.

Oregon Business magazine first reported on D.R. Johnson and the emerging new product in April this year (see article ‘Beam Me Up’).  The story gives an in-depth look at the efforts of a group of urban developers and architects, academics and timber industry executives, who have come together to market the green building product.

Brown said Oregon is perfectly suited to manufacture CLT because of the state’s timber resources. A big advantage of the product is that it is more sustainable than traditional building materials, such as concrete and steel, because of wood’s capacity to store carbon.

“Architects are very excited by sustainable products,” said Judith Sheine, head of the department of architecture at the University of Oregon, on the sidelines of the Oregon BEST FEST conference. “The West Coast will be the first to jump on it, and then it will spread to the rest of the U.S.”

CLT has already been used as a tall building product in Europe for the past 10 years. It is also gaining traction in Canada, but has yet to take off in the U.S.

The new wood product has the potential to boost rural Oregon’s economy, which has been battered by economic decline. Speaking at the Oregon BEST FEST conference, Valerie Johnson, co-owner of D.R. Johnson, expressed her hope that CLT will make rural Oregon a “hot bed” of high tech timber construction.

D.R. Johnson is already processing two orders for buildings that use CLT. The wood product will be used in a new building at Western Oregon University. The Richard Woodcock Education Center, a 58,000 square foot facility, scheduled to open in the fall of 2016, will incorporate the wood panels in its structure.

Also under construction is Albina Yard, a four story, mixed use office building in North Portland.  The project is the first to use domestically produced CLT as a structural element in a commercial building in the U.S.

To encourage more developers to use CLT, Oregon is hosting a design competition with $200,000 in funding. The competition will promote demonstration products that use the engineered wood panels. The competition is co-sponsored by Oregon BEST as well as a partnership between Oregon State University, the University of Oregon, and the National Center for Advanced Wood Products Manufacturing and Design.