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

MassTimber@MSU in Italy

Published on December 8, 2022
Dr. George Berghorn, Research Director, Mass Timber @ MSU travelled to connect with the mass timber industry in Italy, read his blog entry here.
Rethink Real Estate For Good podcast features Sandra Lupien

Published on December 1, 2022
Host of the Rethink Real Estate For Good podcast, Eve Picker, features Sandra Lupien to speak on how she became involved with mass timber, and how she is constantly striving to advance mass timber construction and manufacture in Michigan.
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.