Feature Article
Author: Alex Anderson; Forest Products Specialist, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
Wisconsin is home to 34 mass timber buildings either built or in the construction phase, with another 13 buildings in the design phase. These buildings range in construction methods from nail-laminated timber (NLT) to glued-laminated timber (glulam) and cross-laminated timber (CLT) and more. They also vary in size, with some only a few stories tall and others soaring into the sky, like the Ascent MKE building in Milwaukee, which boasts 18 stories of CLT construction atop a 6-story concrete base and is the tallest mass timber building in the world. Not to be outdone, the soon-to-be tallest mass timber building in the world recently broke ground again in Milwaukee. This project, dubbed “The Edison,” is slated to be 31 stories high and will also be constructed from CLT panels.
Ascent MKE shortly before opening. Ascent MKE during construction.
While tall mass timber buildings generally get the most press, a variety of other mass timber buildings in Wisconsin display the possibilities of utilizing mass timber in construction. The Feynman Center on the Promega Campus in Fitchburg utilizes mass timber to create a warm, welcoming environment to offset the time employees spend in sterile environments required for medical production. The effect of using natural materials in construction, including wood, is associated with a host of health benefits and is generally referred to as biophilic design.
Populance, LLC is an architecture and development firm working to utilize mass timber in Wisconsin construction. They have multiple projects in the Madison area that use mass timber, including the Barracuda Condominiums. They have taken a unique approach by utilizing glulam construction for roof and floor systems, eschewing the commonly utilized practice of CLT in larger buildings due to the simplified nature of code compliance and fire department requirements that glulams offer. These glulams have been sourced from Timber Technologies in Colfax, currently the state’s only manufacturer.
Barracuda Condominiums during construction
In addition to a variety of mass timber projects in construction, Wisconsin is also home to the USDA Forest Products Laboratory (FPL) in Madison. FPL provides a variety of valuable research into forest products, including large-scale testing of mass timber panels.
The current reality for developers hoping to utilize CLT and other mass timber construction methods is a heavy reliance on materials from the Pacific Northwest, the southeastern U.S. and Europe. The upper Midwest does not currently have any producers of mass timber utilizing locally sourced feedstocks. Sterling Structural, the only CLT manufacturer in the Midwest (just outside Chicago), utilizes southern yellow pine, while Timber Technologies in Colfax constructed all the glulam panels for use in the Madison area mass timber structures from Douglas fir.
CLT “shelters” being tested for emergency weather use.
However, efforts are being made to utilize locally-grown species to manufacture mass timber in the upper Midwest. Michigan Technological University (Michigan Tech) in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula—Houghton, to be exact—has analyzed the feasibility of building CLT panels from solely hardwood species and hardwood/softwood hybrid panels. These early tests show promising results. Furthermore, the Wisconsin DNR is working alongside Michigan Tech to examine the viability of Eastern white pine in CLT construction. While Eastern white pine is abundant and considered underutilized by the Wisconsin DNR, its lumber currently falls just short of the physical strength requirements put in place by the overseeing body for the International Building Codes relevant to CLT panel construction. There is potential for Eastern white pine use in CLT panels if the test panels show satisfactory physical characteristics.
Though there are not yet any mass timber projects utilizing locally sourced lumber in Wisconsin, the state of Michigan recently completed a demonstration project at a Michigan DNR facility in Newberry that was built entirely from local lumber. The lumber was sent to a manufacturing facility in the Pacific Northwest and returned to Michigan to construct the building.
Work continues to be done to advocate for local mass timber construction in Wisconsin and surrounding states. There is a Great Lakes Mass Timber Collaborative that is in the process of creating a “road map” for expanding mass timber utilization in the Great Lakes region. With continued effort and advocacy, the hope is that there will be an increase in mass timber production in Wisconsin and beyond in the coming years. As we all know, it is nearly impossible to practice sustainable forest management without forest markets.