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WOODWORKS STORIES

WoodWorks celebrated teams driving innovation in wood building design.

Click here to view all the recipients.

2023 Wood Design
Awards Recognize
Top Projects

Combined, the projects represent 18 MM SF of impacted wood construction, 180 MM BF of incremental lumber, 36 MM BF of incremental engineered wood products, and 108 MM SF of incremental wood structural panels. Education is an important component to project conversion, and  WoodWorks delivered a staggering 33,571 practitioner education hours (96% of YE goal) from 124 self-hosted and third-party events.

About 9,000 individuals consumed webinars on a wide range of design and engineering topics. This included the 2,000 professionals that attended the “Mass Timber Warehouses: Performance, Sustainability & Aesthetic Appeal” webinar, which led to five project assistance inquiries
in March alone. Another, a hybrid learning session among professionals in Washington, D.C., called “Wood’s Role in Healthy Forests and Healthy Buildings,” turned into a highly engaged discussion about the connection between wood use and forest sustainability.

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WOODWORKS STORIES

WoodWorks directly influenced 123 projects and indirectly influenced 309 projects in Q1.

123 Projects Influenced in Quarter as Webinar Engagements Soar

Since then, the firm has used WoodWorks’ technical resources
to design three light-frame assisted living developments in the Southeast. High Point was the second of the developments and required WoodWorks’ assistance with detailing. The program team met with the firm to address concerns from local building code officials, assist with firewall design, and grant access to a library
of architectural details. The result was the completion of a 285,000-square-foot (3.8 MM BF) light-frame contemporary residence consisting of independent living, assisted living, and memory
care facilities and featuring outdoor living areas for seniors.

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WOODWORKS STORIES

Before 2021, Fort Myers, Florida–based architecture firm Studio+ specialized in building steel-and-concrete systems.

Featured Project:
High Point Assisted Living

With 10 new projects converted in Q1 alone, the program is on pace
to set a record number of new projects in 2023, an early indication that
lead nurturing is continuously becoming more effective at priming practitioners to want to build projects with wood.

Relatedly, the program reported 15 touchpoint projects—where Think Wood nurtured a lead that originated in WoodWorks—showing the continued pattern of practitioners relying on both programs when considering wood. The projects are also getting larger: The 15 projects reported in Q1 represent a total potential volume of 126.8 MM BF,
already more than the 106.6 MM BF reported in all of 2022.

Increased conversion rates for marketing campaigns during periods
of reduced spending are essential to making sure results—measured in board feet impacts—remain high.

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THINK WOOD STORIES

This quarter, the Think Wood team secured the highest ever conversion rate of Qualified Leads to new projects, at 29%.

Campaign Achieves Record Pace
for Project Leads Already Exceeds
Prior Year BF Volume

The analysis brings to light how a lead’s
needs can change over time and the importance
of supporting them with resources and direct assistance over a long time.

This quarter examined Basim Shamsuddin, Senior Associate at John Ronan Architects in Chicago who is working on a 250,000-square-foot housing complex in Denver.

Each quarter, Think Wood and WoodWorks reconstruct the engagement history of an AEC professional as they gather information, attend events, and work directly with program staff.

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THINK WOOD STORIES

Specifier’s Journey:
How Think Wood
and WoodWorks Helped
a Denver Architect

With more than 32,000 views, the top-performing webpage was Sustainable Architecture, Design & Forestry, a collection of resources that help specifiers understand how to maximize wood use in residential and commercial construction. The page includes an examination of the sustainable forestry practiced in North America, ensuring a continuous cycle of growing, harvesting, and replanting.

Reporting on projects also saw continued upticks in interest. A profile of the steel-timber hybrid Houston Endowment Headquarters led performance among articles, followed by coverage of a cost-effective rental property called SuperBungalows designed and built by a Los Angeles–based integrated development firm.

Moving into the year, Think Wood plans to follow a similar formula for content, situating high-quality evergreen resources that emphasize wood’s fundamental advantages with reported coverage of well-chosen projects that bring those claims to life.

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THINK WOOD STORIES

Think Wood relies on quality content to get users to engage
with the campaign. Here are the top-performing pieces of content published by the program in Q1.

Houston Project, LA Apartment, and Sustainable Architecture Lead Topic Interest

Sharing this data as a national EPD for solid-sawn lumber would address concerns from the AEC sector that the industry’s carbon accounting through the value chain remains incomplete. By contrast, data transparency would reinforce the industry’s core claims about product sustainability and adherence to ESG standards that go unnoticed today.

This year’s survey included several significant updates to the online platform to clarify submission requirements and foster greater accuracy in data collection from mills. Work remains, however, to push beyond the 50% threshold for industry representation, and toward the 80% mark desired for broader acceptance by users—and demonstrated by our competitors. Future newsletters will report any increase in the percentage of mills represented.

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AMERICAN WOOD COUNCIL STORIES

The AWC launched its second year of Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) data collection—an ongoing project to compile data on the production processes and environmental impacts of lumber products from source to end use.

Second Year of Data Collection to
Populate the Wood Products EPD Database

The AWC’s proposed document received support from the board, which encouraged the AWC to bring it to BOAF’s code development committee for review and editing prior to becoming available through the BOAF website. The AWC has begun developing the alternative means and methods document and is planning to make it available for review by the BOAF code development committee. The AWC’s goal is to widen the path for builders to gain approval of mass timber projects in the 29 states where building codes have not yet caught up to the 2021 IBC.

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AMERICAN WOOD COUNCIL STORIES

Continuing to look for paths to adoption of tall mass timber construction types in Florida, the AWC presented on development of an alternative means and methods document at the March meeting of the Board of Directors for the Building Officials Association of Florida (BOAF).

Pushing Alternative Means and
Methods for Mass Timber in Florida

For the first time, CLT shear walls are being recognized as a seismic force-resisting system, paving a way to use wood alternatives to such systems, which are typically made from concrete and steel. ASCE 7-22 references AWC’s ANSI/AWC SDPWS-2021, Special Design Provisions for Wind and Seismic, which includes two variants of the CLT shear wall system: CLT shear walls and CLT shear walls with shear resistance provided by high-aspect-ratio panels only. Some jurisdictions are accelerating the adoption of ASCE 7-22 in part to adopt these new CLT shear wall systems: For example, Oregon has issued a Statewide Alternate Method (SAM),
No. 15-01, to include recognition of two prescriptive paths for use of CLT shear walls as part of the seismic force-resisting system for buildings up to a structural height of 65 feet. Such adoptions create new opportunities for lumber demand in seismically vulnerable regions where shear walls are required.

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AMERICAN WOOD COUNCIL STORIES

The AWC led the effort to standardize CLT shear walls through the AWC standards process, and those efforts are bearing fruit through the accelerated adoption of the ASCE 7-22 Minimum Design Loads and Associated Criteria for Buildings and Other Structures.

New Effort Would Allow
Wood Shear Walls

Jennifer Bonner, an Associate Professor of Architecture at Harvard University Graduate School of Design and principal at design firm MALL, spoke to a crowded auditorium of 175 architecture students and faculty about her work with wood systems, especially CLT. A recording of the lecture will be turned into an on-demand education course made available on the Wood Institute.

The SLB chose to sponsor the events because they coincided with A&M’s biannual Construction Sciences Career Fair, which saw over 60 AEC firms visit campus to showcase employment prospects for students who can bring innovative thinking and fresh perspective to the design and construction industry.

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SLB EDUCATION STORIES

The SLB sponsored a guest lecture at Texas A&M University in February in conjunction with a Think Wood Mobile Tour visit.

Wood Design Receives
Focus at Texas A&M

Many factors—such as the school’s historical roots, its research focus, and presence of competing industries—contribute to why certain materials receive more attention than others. One known reason is the lack of faculty with sufficient expertise and confidence to teach a wood design course, even when students display enthusiasm about the topic.

To address this problem, SLB Education, with support from the U.S. Endowment for Forestry & Communities, will fund three faculty development workshops at high-reputation schools in 2023, providing 55 educators
with the opportunity to advance their wood design knowledge and prepare them to cover the topic
better in their own curricula. The workshops will also encourage participants to connect and collaborate with colleagues from other institutions, fostering the exchange of ideas and resources. The goal is to expand the coverage of wood design to more schools so future professionals are prepared to confidently implement wood systems in the built environment.

Key: 0 = no focus; 5 = dedicated focus

Cornell University (Wood Score = 2)

Rhode Island School of Design (0)

Rice University (1)

Princeton University (1)

UC Berkeley (1)

In 2022, SLB Education conducted an audit
of how much focus is paid to wood at high-reputation architecture programs. The results, delivered this quarter, indicate that 59% of
the schools audited provide little to no exposure to wood design. This was true at
even the country’s most-admired architecture programs, such as:

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SLB EDUCATION STORIES

The scarcity of faculty who can teach wood design is an obstacle to expanding coverage of the topic in post-secondary architecture and engineering programs.

Research Shows Significant Gap in Wood Focus at Architecture School

Volcano, Hut & Divine Tree
Team Lead: Yuchen Wang,
University of Hawaii, Manoa

1st Place

The competition stimulated a worldwide discussion on the application of wood solutions in well-considered solutions for high-rise typologies in a U.S. context. The winners were selected in March 2023 by a jury of architecture faculty, who noted the caliber of the innovative entries as well as the urgent need to elevate the study of wood design in academia.

“Mass timber is an absolute game changer in the building industry on so many levels: the carbon equation; sustainability; occupant health and productivity; construction efficiency, to name just a few. Against this backdrop, the recognition of the significance of this movement in architectural education is lagging behind,” remarked Antony Wood, President of CTBUH.

Student competitions are an effective tool for giving students practical chances to design with wood with the support of the educational environment—learning lessons that they will take with them into professional practice and drive lumber demand. Jurors in this competition were confident that these winners would encourage further interest in and engagement with wood design at U.S. schools of architecture. 

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SLB EDUCATION STORIES

The 2022 Tall Building Design Competition, an SLB-sponsored initiative with the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH), generated 37 impressive submissions from students across the globe.

American Student Wins Prestigious International Design Competition Sponsored by the SLB

Having worked primarily in concrete and steel, the firm reached out to WoodWorks to discuss options for using light-frame wood in an upcoming
five-story project.

Over the next year, Paradym Principal Tyler Thayer attended several WoodWorks education events on wood construction. He also relied on the Mass Timber Design Manual, co-authored with Think Wood, leading him to ultimately pursue a
light-frame system for the project.

A WoodWorks Regional Director provided information on floor-to-wall
intersection detailing and fire ratings alongside resources such as WoodWorks’ Shaft Wall Solutions for Light-Frame and Mass Timber Buildings and AWC’s
DCA 3 – Fire-Resistance-Rated Wood-Frame Wall and Floor/Ceiling Assemblies. Now under construction, the 75,000-square-foot H&O will be one of the first purpose-built new Airbnb developments on Nashville’s Music Row and will comprise 920,000 BF of lumber in its floors, walls, and roof.

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SLB STORIES

In early 2020, the boutique community-minded architectural development firm Paradym Studio wanted to learn more about whether timber construction offered a new way to align its portfolio and intention-driven practice.

Unique Firm Learns to Embrace
Light-Frame Wood

The first will investigate the current market for outdoor residential applications of softwood lumber for siding, decks, and porches. FEA will use data secured by the SLB from Home Innovation Research Labs (HIRL) to produce market share and volume estimates for lumber opportunities in outdoor living applications, and to identify the underlying trends. The study will also model “what if” scenarios for wood use in those categories through 2040.

A second study will focus on machine-stress-rated (MSR) lumber, typically used for engineered products such as roof trusses. The research will provide insight into the price premium associated with MSR products and factors driving any trends in their demand.

Finally, the FEA will evaluate the impact of offsite construction on softwood lumber demand through qualitative studies of component manufacturers. The research will also quantify lumber usage rates for typical factory-built structures with comparable site-built ones, producing estimated market potentials for a range of scenarios through 2040.

Once completed in the second half of 2023, the three studies will guide the SLB’s investments in these market segments.

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SLB STORIES

In addition to its annual industry forecast, the SLB has partnered with Forest Economic Advisors (FEA) to conduct new research in three areas to assess market opportunities.

FEA to Produce Three Special Lumber Market Reports

The six winners of last year’s competition, announced last June, are in various states of progress toward realization. Of the winners, the team behind Evergreen Charter School, an 85,000-square-foot, five-story
hybrid CLT education facility with biophilic design elements, broke ground in Hempstead, New York, in April. Another project, INTRO Phase 2, a multifamily building in Cleveland, met an initial deliverables milestone and received its first disbursements of competition funds. That project
is expected to begin construction in Q1 of 2024.

The entry period for the 2023 Mass Timber Competition, which will
award another $2 million in total funding, closed in May with 56 entries. Technical evaluation by WoodWorks is underway, with in-person
judging by a panel of distinguished experts in the fields of architecture, engineering, construction, fire safety, and sustainability to follow.
Winners of the 2023 competition will be announced during National Forest Products Week, which begins October 15.

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SLB STORIES

Now in its second year, the prominence of the Mass Timber Competition: Building to Net-Zero Carbon has allowed the SLB and funding partner the USDA Forest Service to identify teams actively working on mass timber projects and to influence new completions.

Update: 2022 and 2023 Mass Timber Competition

As demand for office space has declined in the work-from-home era, U.S. office vacancy rates have risen steadily to a national high of 16.7%. Office developers and owners need to find cost-effective ways to stand out from the competition and attract new tenants, creating a market space for softwood lumber interior finishes that provide benefits in health, wellness, and aesthetics. To assess this potential new opportunity for the industry, the SLB has partnered with Forestry Innovation Investment (FII) to fund research that identifies which building types and interior finishes using wood offer the most promising areas for market growth, as well as to examine how to effectively influence decision-makers.

A second study, also co-funded with FII, will survey 3,500 adults in the United States and Canada to learn more about their attitudes toward low-carbon construction using lumber. The study will ask respondents to share their understanding of what makes a building material environmentally sustainable and to what extent those materials should be used in their homes and cities.

The results of both studies will be shared with SLB investors in Q3 and will help determine the type and degree of investment warranted.

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SLB STORIES

The studies will identify areas for potential new investment and ways to sharpen the positioning of lumber as a building solution.

SLB and FII Fund New Studies Into Lumber Use, Attitudes Toward Wood

Surging attendance at live events fueled robust industry representation of lumber-based solutions.

Think Wood was joined by multiple industry association partners in educating building professionals about the essential role of lumber in the single-family homes market.

During Q1, industry association partners including the Southern Forest Products Association, the Western Red Cedar Lumber Association, the Northeastern Lumber Manufacturers Association, the Western Wood Preservers Institute,
and the Western Wood Products Association gathered under the Think Wood banner to form a consolidated presence in January at the 2023 International Builders’ Show—the single largest gathering of residential builders and remodeling professionals within the United States. The producers of the event touted that this year’s show was the biggest in 10 years, with 70,000 attendees and 1,300 exhibitors present for three days of interaction; Think Wood staff can confirm that attendance at the booth was highest since at least 2019.

The partners reconvened in March at the 2023 JLC Live show, a more focused, regional event for general and specialty contractors held each year in Providence, Rhode Island. Again, the staff reported levels of attendance and engagement that exceeded recent prior years, in part because of Think Wood’s sponsorship of live trim carpentry clinics focused on screen doors and wainscoting using lumber.

By increasing the prominence of industry representation at these trade shows, the SLB’s event sponsorships are better positioned to help protect traditional market segments from disturbance by non-lumber products.

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SLB STORIES

Think Wood Convenes Industry Partners at Major Residential Trade Shows