A new mass timber building, heated and cooled thanks to geothermal heating, is progressing at speed, with crews finishing work on the new Central Washington University (CWU) building’s exterior walls and building envelope before starting on brick and metal wall installation. “It’s looking really good, and we’re right on schedule,” said Delano Palmer, CWU’s Capital Planning and Projects Director.
As reported by the Woodworking Network, the 106,000 square-foot North Academic Complex (NAC) includes a four-story LEED Gold building — funded by the Washington State Legislature in 2023 — and will eventually become home to a large number of classes for first-and second-year students – billed as “CWU’s preeminent academic facility.”
In addition to being one of the Northwest’s most sustainable facilities, CWU has partnered with tribes to provide the timber used for cross-laminated support beams. The glulam beams — manufactured from wood supplied by the Quinalt Tribe and facilitated by the Yakama Nation — will be fully exposed in the interior of the NAC, giving the facility a natural aura that pairs nicely with the abundant natural light.
“These cross-laminated timber beams are beautiful to look at, but they also represent a more sustainable construction method than steel,” Palmer said: “Our goal with this project and future construction projects on campus is to have a minimal impact on our earth, and using materials like these in partnership with local tribal communities allows us to be more responsible stewards of the environment.”
The campus is just one of hundreds of mid-rise and high-rise timber buildings designed, under construction or fully constructed across the Northwest. Last year, Wood Central revealed that 2,000 mass timber buildings are rising across the United States – with the Northwest, next to the American South, the region with the greatest capacity for growth.
In April, a new bill, the Mass Timber Federal Buildings Act, was read before Congress – backed by Democrat and Republican senators from the Northwest – which could see thousands of future buildings, including schools, colleges, office buildings and military installations, potentially built from ‘innovative wood products.”
