From: lessgovt@gmail.com   
      
   Colleges Showcase Mass Timber, in Research and on Display   
   By Lisa Prevost, March 14-19, 2023, NY Times   
      
   Mass timber, an engineered wood product that offers durability and   
   sustainability benefits, has become increasingly prominent at colleges across   
   the country, where it is included not only as a concept in the curriculum but   
   also as a material in campus    
   buildings.   
      
   Experts say universities are helping to increase awareness of mass timber —   
   layers of wood bonded with glue or nails — by demonstrating its potential as   
   a low-carbon alternative to steel and concrete.   
      
   “Our college and university clients have really embraced the imperatives of   
   climate change,” said Ellen Belknap, president of SMRT Architects and   
   Engineers in Portland, Maine. “I’m thrilled that universities are showing   
   the way.”   
      
   But significant barriers impede widespread use of mass timber: Suppliers are   
   mostly limited to Canada and the Pacific Northwest, and the upfront costs are   
   higher than for steel and concrete. Despite those challenges, developers are   
   finding that mass    
   timber goes up more quickly, helping them recover upfront costs faster.   
      
   “The building goes up a little bit like an Erector Set,” said Sandra   
   Lupien, the director of MassTimber@MSU, an education and outreach program at   
   Michigan State University.   
      
   Liam O’Brien, a 23-year-old graduate student at the University of Maine, is   
   part of a team trying to develop a cross-laminated timber panel insulated with   
   wood fiber. Such insulation could be made with the waste from timber   
   processing and, if put into    
   prefabricated panels at a factory, further reduce construction time and costs.   
      
   Originally a forestry major, Mr. O’Brien said, he switched to wood science   
   as he became fascinated with the carbon-reducing potential of cross-laminated   
   timber panels, which consist of several layers of boards stacked in   
   alternating directions and    
   bonded with adhesives.   
      
   “It is a material that should take off in the U.S. as long as we can   
   convince people,” Mr. O’Brien said. “Building sciences can play a large   
   role in how we respond to climate change.”   
      
   Long used in Europe, cross-laminated panels are so strong they are suitable   
   for walls, roofs and flooring. And they have a number of other benefits: They   
   capture carbon, keeping it out of the atmosphere; they are more sustainable   
   than other construction    
   materials, like steel and concrete; and they are exposed, adding aesthetic   
   appeal.   
      
   Mass timber construction has picked up in the United States over the last few   
   years, and universities have been a driving force. Most of the activity is in   
   heavily forested states, including Arkansas, Idaho, Maine, Michigan, Oregon   
   and South Carolina,    
   where widespread use of the material could help expand or revitalize the   
   forest industry.   
      
   The University of Arkansas is among those at the forefront. “We are almost a   
   pilgrimage site for a lot of people,” said Peter B. MacKeith, the dean of   
   the university’s Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design, who added that   
   he helped persuade    
   campus leaders of the benefits of mass timber. The Fayetteville campus now has   
   two buildings showcasing the material and a third on the way.   
      
   By using mass timber in a library storage annex, completed in 2018, the   
   university saved more than $1 million over the original steel-and-concrete   
   plan, Mr. MacKeith said. He added, “That’s when people start to sit up and   
   say, ‘Well, maybe we    
   should at least be looking at this as an alternative form of con   
   truction.’”   
      
   Adohi Hall, a 200,000-square-foot residence hall constructed with mass timber,   
   opened in 2019. It consists of two five-story buildings connected by a common   
   area.   
      
   “It’s this rather premium set of spaces — there’s a warmth to it,   
   visually and atmospherically, that the students very much appreciate,” Mr.   
   MacKeith said. “And commercial developers come to look at it. It’s   
   analogous to multifamily housing.   
   ”    
      
   Soon, the university will break ground on the $33.5 million Anthony   
   Timberlands Center for Design and Materials Innovation, which was designed by   
   Grafton Architects. It will house the school’s graduate program in timber   
   and wood design (among other    
   programs), and enable students to build large-scale mass timber prototypes,   
   with a focus on affordable housing and new construction technologies.   
      
   “These buildings are proof of concept in terms of time efficiency, cost   
   savings and a safer construction site,” Mr. MacKeith said.   
      
   Michigan State University built that state’s first mass timber building: the   
   STEM Teaching and Learning Facility, which was adapted from an old power plant   
   and incorporates cross-laminated panels in the framing, floors and ceilings.   
   The building has    
   become a magnet for industry professionals, about 1,000 of whom have toured it   
   since it opened last year, said George H. Berghorn, an assistant professor of   
   construction management at the university’s School of Planning, Design and   
   Construction.   
      
   “It’s just a gorgeous building,” he said. “A lot of students just go   
   over there to study even if they don’t have a class there.”   
      
   But a lack of knowledge remains a barrier to mass timber’s wider adoption,   
   Mr. Berghorn said. To that end, the university recently received a $650,000   
   grant from the National Science Foundation, an independent federal agency that   
   finances science    
   research, to develop a national model for a mass timber design and   
   construction curriculum for architecture, engineering and construction   
   programs.   
      
   Clemson University in South Carolina was given a $1.1 million grant from the   
   Department of Energy to help expand the use of mass timber. Researchers there   
   are developing a floor system made of cross-laminated timber panels that can   
   span about 40 feet,    
   double the current industry practice. They are also looking at ways to   
   dovetail the system with other building components, such as duct work and   
   electrical conduits.   
      
   Such an all-in-one system would reduce the need for as many structural beams   
   and potentially speed up construction, said Dustin Albright, assistant   
   director of the university’s School of Architecture.   
      
   “We want to come up with an all-in-one approach to the floor system that   
   allows the flexibility to get in and access those components, but do it in a   
   way that’s all timber,” he said.   
      
      
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