Mass Timber

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Mass timber buildings are cropping up across North America, along with factories that manufacture these versatile, sustainable, engineered wood building materials. That’s because mass timber offers a compelling suite of benefits. Manufacturing mass timber can play an important role in achieving forest health management goals, contribute to rural economic development, and provide new opportunities in the manufacturing sector. For the architecture, engineering, and construction industry, building with mass timber can reduce project construction times and costs, reduce construction crew sizes and equipment needs, and create beautiful buildings that people love to work, learn, and live in. Made from a renewable resource, mass timber is less carbon-intensive to produce than other common building materials; plus, these wood materials store carbon absorbed by trees, keeping it out of the atmosphere where it would contribute to climate change.

Michigan State University is at the forefront of efforts to realize these benefits in Michigan and the Great Lakes Region. MSU built the state’s first mass timber building – the STEM Teaching and Learning Facility – on the site of the former Shaw Lane Power Plant, adjacent to Spartan Stadium. The two new mass timber wings provide 117,000 square feet of modern teaching labs and collaboration space.

MassTimber@MSU leverages lessons learned from building the STEM facility, along with research, education, outreach, communications, policy, and partnerships to advance sustainable mass timber construction and manufacture in Michigan and the surrounding region.

In addition, faculty in the Department of Forestry and School of Planning, Design and Construction are developing mass timber adhesives made from lignin, tools to predict construction costs and timelines for mass timber buildings, and mass timber made from salvaged lumber content in mass timber in service of MassTimber@MSU’s mission.

News

Dr. George H. Berghorn featured in Mass Timber Webinar

Published on November 17, 2022
Register to learn from webinar panelists George H. Berghorn, Paul Crovella, Hongtao Dang, and Azzeddine Oudjehane, facilitated by Melanie Ross on Wednesday, November 30th 11:00 - 1:00 MST.
Team Kicks off Mass Timber Curriculum Development Project at NSF Conference

Published on November 14, 2022
Faculty members attend the NSF ATE Principal Investigators’ Conference October 26-28, 2022 to meet with other grant recipients and their project partners in Washington, DC.
WEF Summit in Detroit Highlights Mass Timber

Published on November 7, 2022
In October 2022, MassTimber@MSU Director Sandra Lupien participated in the “Urban Transformation Summit,” which highlighted mass timber as a strategy to achieve more sustainable, resilient, carbon-neutral communities.
Michigan Mass Timber Momentum Featured in Detroit News

Published on October 30, 2022
This segment covers mass timber sustainability and carbon benefits, mass timber demand in Michigan and the U.S., upcoming mass timber construction projects, education, and more.
October 2022 Webinar

Published on October 20, 2022
Anna Anderson, Ben Ridderbos, and Matt Kantner present, "Designing in Mass Timber - Current Work and Lessons Learned" facilitated by Brian Craig.