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The Oregon Mass Timber Coalition supports an initiative to expand the state’s market for the use of mass timber. This suite of projects aims to create shared prosperity by sourcing from resilient forests, designing and manufacturing innovative new products, and providing employment and workforce training opportunities.
The T2 Building Innovation Hub is a signature project of the Oregon Mass Timber Coalition, led by the Port of Portland.
Located on the 53-acre Terminal 2 site in Portland, the facility will build and supply mass timber panels for modular homes, which will be barged and trucked from Terminal 2 to communities in need around Oregon. It will also serve as a small business incubator, inclusive of women and diverse communities, and as a location for workforce training.
The State of Oregon and the Legislature have committed $5 million for a prototype housing manufacturing facility, led by the Port and Hacienda CDC.
The TallWood Design Institute is a collaboration between the University of Oregon and Oregon State University, working with industry experts to shape housing designs that are attractive, affordable, energy-efficient, and resilient.
Acoustic Testing Facility
A state-of-the-art facility for conducting acoustics tests to ensure a quiet experience for residents of mass timber homes.
Download the project fact sheet
Fire Testing Facility
A fire testing chamber to optimize the fire resistance performance of mass timber housing.
Download the project fact sheet
Technical Testing of Mass Timber Systems
Evaluating the structural and durability performance of mass timber housing modules.
Download the project fact sheet
Product Prototyping for Affordable Housing
Developing panelized housing prototypes that leverage the cost efficiencies of computer-controlled prefabrication. Researching digital prefabrication of mass timber panels to retrofit existing multi-family housing stock.
The Oregon Mass Timber Coalition is partnering with regional workforce boards, industry, community-based organizations, labor unions and community colleges to create a Mass Timber workforce strategy.
The strategy will establish training locations around the state that connect rural and urban communities through job opportunities in forestry, fabrication, construction, and manufacturing. The program is envisioned to be a resource for pre-apprenticeship programs, providing space for additional hands-on training and classroom education to meet pre-apprentice requirements and creating a pathway to living wage jobs in communities.
The Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) and the Willamette National Forest are collaborating to restore forests and make them more resilient to wildfire. This partnership seeks to improve forest health and provide small-diameter fiber for mass timber manufacturing.
ODF will partner with the Willamette National Forest to conduct environmental review and implement forest restoration projects, removing small trees and brush while leaving larger trees behind. These actions will increase fire resiliency while providing wood fiber to the state’s growing mass timber industry. The aim is to demonstrate how forest restoration can be part of a broader forest health and housing solution.
Where the wood comes from and the outcomes from forest restoration are important. ODF will engage a respected outside organization to develop and implement a robust track and trace methodology. This will bring additional transparency and accountability to the wood supply chain.
Oregon State University uses smart technology and science-based solutions to improve the resiliency of Oregon forests and the region’s forest-dependent rural communities.
Forest restoration faces challenges from labor shortage, dangerous and dated forest practices, and low-value wood. To combat these issues, OSU is finding innovative technology solutions that will be key to successful forest restoration projects that improve the resiliency of forests and the rural communities that depend on them.
OSU works on four innovative and transformative technology solutions:
Advanced forest landscape mapping
This allows for data-driven decisions on forest restoration activities, while minimizing uncertainties around sourcing forest restoration wood.
Smart technologies
Innovative logging technologies and wearable devices will improve forest workers’ safety and project efficiency. Through these technologies, we’re able to improve forest operations and wood supply logistics.
New mass timber design specifications and manufacturing technologies
By updating design specifications and manufacturing techniques, we can efficiently create value-added products from restoration wood that will enhance the economic viability of forest restoration projects.
Interactive and intelligent training
We want to build and equip a reliable workforce with future forestry skills. Innovative education and well-paying modern job opportunities will support local forest industries and rural communities.
Oregon's Department of Land Conservation and Development will create model development codes to make it easier to build using modular mass timber panels.
DLCD will also work directly with wildfire-impacted communities to implement code changes that will allow for rapid development of new mass timber modular housing.
This can be used as a national best practice, given that statutory and local regulatory barriers impede the rapid deployment of mass timber housing around the country.
