America’s largest cities are now looking to build neighbourhoods out of timber, with city officials establishing mass timber studios to supercharge adoption in built-up areas.
That is according to Kevin Naranjo, the National Program Manager for Mass Timber at the US Forest Service Wood Innovations Program, who spoke to the Wood Central Publisher this morning.
“From Boston to New York City and here in Washington DC, officials are looking at mass timber and hybrid systems.”
Kevin Naranjo, the National Program Manager for Mass Timber at the US Forest Service Wood Innovations Program speaking to Wood Central today.
Before adding that changes to fire design introduced in the International Building Code have been crucial in facilitating the rise of timber buildings.
Mr Naranjo will fly from Washington, DC, to Melbourne, Australia, next month to present at TimberConstruct, Australia’s largest timber construction conference. There, he will participate in a panel discussion chaired by Andrew Dunn, the conference organiser.
“Kevin Naranjo will join Boris Iskra, Codes and Standards Manager for the FWPA, George Konstadakos, the Development General Manager FOR Sumitomo Forestry Australia – who is now behind Australia’s largest timber-based build-to-rent scheme, and Russell Kilmartin, one of Australia’s top fire engineers,” Mr Dunn said.
The conference’s final session “is probably the most important of all,” Mr Dunn said. “We will investigate the code changes adopted in Canada and the USA for fire design standards in buildings up to 18 storeys high.”
“With varying levels of exposed timber corresponding to increased height, the North American standards proposal presents a proven approach to meet the growing demand for taller wood constructions while ensuring stringent safety standards,” said Mr Dunn, with “the panel discussing whether the North American experience is suitable for Australia.”
How New York City is embracing tall timber construction
In March, Wood Central reported that New York City picked seven projects for its Mass Timber Studio, an incubator pledging to bring mass timber to the masses.
The projects range from the Brooklyn Public Library to an affordable housing development in Jamaica, Queens, spearheaded by MURAL Real Estate Partners and Curtis + Ginsberg Architects.
Projects involved in the nine-month incubator have received technical support from several city agencies and other experts on mass timber construction, including the Wood Products Council and the American Institute of Architects New York.
“For a developer or design team to put themselves through a nine-month studio with us, we expect that all of them will be able to go to the finish line,” according to Cecilia Kushner, from the New York Economic Development Commission who is running the program.
The EDC launched the mass timber incubator to encourage developers to consider mass timber construction systems instead of traditional construction materials. Even though the pilot is relatively small in scale, the EDC hopes it will help New York catch up with cities on the West Coast and Europe that have started embracing mass timber construction.
“It’s just making sure that more New Yorkers in the building construction trade have firsthand experience with it,” Mr Kushner said. “It’s a game of numbers and scale.”
To start the incubator, New York City had to amend its building code to allow the use of cross-laminated timber. Aside from code restrictions, cost and lack of familiarity have been huge disincentives for builders to embrace mass timber construction systems until now.
According to Justin Den Herder, a structural engineer from Silman Structural Solutions, one of three working on the incubator projects, “Integrating mass timber into buildings is a big step forward.”
Part of that step stems from design and construction teams discussing challenges with the New York City Department of Buildings when using mass timber. “Sharing information can make it easier for others to file permits down the road,” Mr Herder added.
“What obstructions are they encountering in implementing mass timber? What questions do they have about its benefits?” he said, adding that “we will share across projects to disseminate that information so more builders can follow this path.”
- Please note: Wood Central will publish an exclusive interview with Kevin Naranjo next week.