CTBUH held its first meeting in relation to two, linked, timber research projects; Tall Timber: An Awareness and Educational Program for the Tall Building Industry, supported by the USDA Forest Service; and Timber City: A Research-Academic Program for Future, Sustainable, Dense Cities, supported by the Binational Softwood Lumber Council (BSLC). View a recording or the full meeting here. 

CTBUH CEO Antony Wood, set the scene for the research project, starting by introducing existing CTBUH mass timber initiatives and providing some background information on the existing Mass Timber Engagement research project, also supported by the USDA Forest Service, which at the time of this meeting, was in the final stages of completion. Next, Wood presented the progress to-date on the present research projects, introducing the research team and outlining the work conducted so far, including the initial research on a historical evaluation of tall timber buildings, potential case studies for consideration, and preliminary timber themes, topics, and data points for examination.

After Wood’s presentation, the meeting was opened to comments and questions from the research steering committee. General comments on the progress to date were provided by Jeff Spiritos, Manager of Spiritos Properties LLC and Chair of the research steering committee, Cees de Jager, the project representative from the Binational Softwood Lumber Council, and Patrick Rappold and Kevin Naranjo, the project representatives from the USDA Forest Service. As the discussion continued, there was a consensus that insurance premiums warranted thorough investigation, and this was emphasized by Tim Gokhman, New Land Enterprises, Lisa Podesto, Lendlease, Grant Newfield, RJC Engineers, and Roy Anderson, The Beck Group. Ariane Dienstag, Ariane Dienstag sas, Nick Milestone, TRADA, Paul Fast, Fast+Epp, Ryan Flom, Softwood Lumber Board, and Rune Abrahamsen, Moelven, also contributed with additional areas for examination.

Participants:

• Rune Abrahamsen, Moelven, Oslo, Norway

• Roy Anderson, The Beck Group, Portland, United States

• Peyman Askarinejad, PAN Partners, New York City, United States

• Hannes Blaas, Rothoblaas USA, New York City, United States

• Jennifer Cover, WoodWorks - Wood Products Council, Washington D.C., United States

• John Crack, Canary Wharf Group, London, United Kingdom

• Cees de Jager, Binational Softwood Lumber Council, Vancouver, Canada

• Ariane Dienstag, Ariane Dienstag sas, Paris, France

• Oscar Faoro

• Paul Fast, Fast+Epp, Vancouver, Canada

• Ryan Flom, Softwood Lumber Board, Minneapolis, United States

• Robert Foster, University of Cambridge, Brisbane, Australia

• Bernhard Gafner, Aspect Engineering, Vancouver, Canada

• Martin Gettings, Canary Wharf Group, London, United Kingdom

• Tim Gokhman, New Land Enterprises LLP, Milwaukee, United States

• Leland Greenfield, The Durst Organization, New York City, United States

• Carsten Hein, Arup, Berlin, Germany

• Alyssa Herbst, CTBUH, Chicago, United States

• Benton Johnson, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, Chicago, United States

• Leif Johnson, Magnusson Klemencic Associates, Seattle, United States

• John Klein, Generate Technologies and Architecture, Cambridge, United States

• Jason Korb, Korb + Associates Architects, Milwaukee, United States

• Kasper Kyndesen, Henning Larsen Architects, Copenhagen, Denmark

• Ethan Martin, DCI Engineers, Seattle, United States

• Phil McCormac, Ivanhoe Cambridge, Denver, United States

• Nick Milestone, TRADA, Seattle, United States

• Will Miranda, CTBUH, Chicago, United States

• John Mitchell, Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture, Chicago, United States

• Philippe Monjaret, HARDEL LE BIHAN ARCHITECTES, Paris, France

• Jeff Morrow, J Morrow Solutions, Clarksville, United States

• Kevin Naranjo, USDA Forest Service, Washington D.C., United States

• Grant Newfield, RJC Engineers, Vancouver, Canada

• John Peronto, Thornton Tomasetti, Chicago, United States

• Angelique Pilon, UBC University Sustainability Initiative, Vancouver, United States

• Lisa Podesto, Lendlease, Chicago, United States

• Patrick Rappold, USDA Forest Service, Milwaukee, United States

• Dan Safarik, CTBUH, Chicago, United States

• Frank Schwartz, Ramboll Group, Copenhagen, Denmark

• Chris Sitzenstock, Sidewalk Labs, Seattle, United States

• Jeff Spiritos, Spiritos Properties LLC, New York City, United States

• Rainer Strauch, Cree by Rhomberg, Bregenz, Austria

• Adrian Wang, Tridel, Toronto, Canada

• Andrew Waugh, Waugh Thistleton Architects, London, United Kingdom

• Antony Wood, CTBUH, Chicago, United States

• Kai Yang, CadMakers Inc., Vancouver, Canada

• Rushyan Yen, LMN Architects, Seattle, United States