Page 32 - aruba-today-20161231

A32 FEATURE
Saturday 31 december 2016
New wood technology may offer hope for struggling timber

GILLIAN FLACCUS CLT as a domestic building
Associated Press material. A 10-story residen-
PHUONG LE tial tower in New York City
Associated Press also got $1.5 million.
RIDDLE, Ore. (AP) — John The Portland firm has been
Redfield watches with pride working with scientists at
as his son moves a laser- Portland State University
guided precision saw the and Oregon State Uni-
size of a semi-truck wheel versity to test the panels’
into place over a massive strength by subjecting
panel of wood. them to hundreds of thou-
Redfield’s fingers are sands of pounds of pres-
scarred from a lifetime of sure. They are also testing
cutting wood and now, various methods for joining
after decades of decline the massive panels togeth-
in the logging business, he er.
has new hope that his son, “We’re looking at creating
too, can make a career a resilient design, a design
shaping the timber felled in that could withstand a ma-
southern Oregon’s forests. In this Nov. 11, 2016 photo, John Redfield, chief operating officer of D.R. Johnson Lumber Co. jor earthquake — basically
That’s because Redfield in Riddle, Ore., poses for a photo as he shows an example of a cross-laminated timber, or CLT, the earthquake that we all
and his son work at D.R. panel that underwent a flammability test. worry about — and be re-
Associated Press paired,” said Thomas Rob-
inson, founder of Lever Ar-
use of low-value wood and other company producing chitecture.
local tree species. Trees as CLT panels. The results of the structural
small as 5 inches in diam- This spring, cross-laminated testing in Oregon will be
eter at the top and those timber will get its ultimate made public for other U.S.
damaged by pests and test in the United States designers, bringing the ma-
wildfire are prime candi- when a Portland architec- terial one step closer to the
dates. tural firm breaks ground on mainstream, Dusicka said.
U.S. building codes gen- a 12-story wood building in Back in Riddle, a tiny town
erally place height limits the city’s trendy Pearl Dis- tucked in the mist-shroud-
on all-wood buildings for trict. It would be the tall- ed forests of Douglas Coun-
safety reasons, though a est all-wood building in ty, Redfield is once more
special committee of the the world constructed in a excited about timber in a
International Code Coun- seismic zone and the tallest place where logging used
cil is investigating potential all-wood building in North to be king.
changes to address the use America.
This Nov. 15, 2016, photo shows Lever Architecture headquarters, of CLT in such structures. An all-wood building in Nor- The 125-employee com-
a four-story all-wood building built using cross-laminated timber, And research is still under- way is taller, but is not in a pany has been inundated
or CLT, in Portland, Ore. with visitors from around
Associated Press way on critical questions of seismic zone. An 18-story
how these buildings with-
grow from just 20 percent stand fire and earthquakes
Johnson Lumber Co., one of our business to poten-
of two U.S. timber mills mak- tially 60 percent of our busi- in high-seismic regions.
Building codes in Oregon
ing a new wood product ness,” said Redfield, D.R. allow cutting-edge designs
that’s the buzz of the con- Johnson’s chief operating using new technology like
struction industry. It’s called officer. “We’re seeing some CLT in some cases, but only
cross-laminated timber, major growth factors.”
after rigorous testing and
or CLT, and it’s made like From Maine to Arkansas to an intensive approval pro-
it sounds: rafts of 2-by-4 the Pacific Northwest, the cess.
beams aligned in perpen- material is sparking inter-
dicular layers, then glued est among architects, en- That can make such proj-
ects cost-prohibitive, said
— or laminated — together gineers and researchers. Peter Dusicka, an engineer-
like a giant sandwich. Many say it could infuse ing professor at Portland
The resulting panels are struggling forest commu-
State University who’s been
lighter and less energy-in- nities like Riddle with new researching the strength of In this Nov. 11, 2016 photo, a logging crew harvests new timber
tensive than concrete and economic growth while CLT panels. on private land near the headquarters of D.R. Johnson Lumber
steel and much faster to as- reducing the carbon foot- Co., in Riddle, Ore.
“The early adopters are
semble on-site than regular print of urban construction looking at it and seeing it Associated Press
timber, proponents say. with a renewable building as a good opportunity,”
Because the grain in each material. country interested in tour-
but before CLT can take wood building in British
layer is at a right angle to Visually blemished wood off, there will have to be Columbia is also taller, but ing their new CLT business
the one below and above that currently goes to waste more examples to get rests on a traditional con- expansion.
it, there’s a counter-tension can be used in the middle people excited and more crete core. Watching as layers of
built into the panels that layers of a CLT panel with- beams whirred through
mills producing it, said Lever Architecture is using
supporters say makes them out sacrificing strength Thomas DeLuca, professor $1.5 million it won in a tall a glue machine, Redfield
strong enough to build or look. Supporters say it and director of University of wood building competi- said: “We’re able to take
even the tallest skyscrap- could bring sawmills back Washington’s School of En- wood that may be turned
ers. online while improving for- tion sponsored by the U.S. into chips or pulp and turn it
vironmental and Forest Sci-
“We believe that two to five est health through thinning ences. Department of Agriculture into a product that’s pretty
and the softwood industry
years out, down the road, dense stands and making SmartLam in Montana is the that’s intended to promote exciting.”q
we could be seeing this